Description
Designed by military spouse Megan Brenner in 2014 - four years after her husband Al Brenner sustained life-altering injuries in Afghanistan - the image was added to shirts, which were sold to raise money for Gold Star families.
Megan's design depicts a military working dog facing the traditional memorial for a dog handler killed in combat: Boots, rifle speared upright in the ground, adorned with tags and helmet.
US Marine Corps dog handler Al and his MWD, Grief, were part of Operation Dragon Strike - a frenetic and dangerous mission to secure the Taliban-controlled Kandahar Province. An IED blast seriously injured Brenner and tragically killed Grief. After life-saving surgery in-country, Al returned to the States to recover, but rather than medically retire, he felt compelled to rejoin his Marines at Camp Pendleton to pass on his hard-fought knowledge of combat deployments to those who would be following him.
Al penned his experiences - including how he dealt with the devastation of losing his MWD and returning home as a Purple Heart recipient - in his book Surviving Grief: The Story of How a Marine and His Dog Survived The Everyday Battles of War.