Vance McFarland is a young man who spent a considerable amount of time in Afghanistan. His job was detecting explosive devices, and as a US Army specialist, he was on the job frequently. He didn’t do the job alone, however, he had a four legged soldier who was beside him. It was a Czech shepherd named Ikar. The dog was specifically trained to detect tactical explosive devices and he served side-by-side with his companion loyally.
Then came the day when Vance was finished with his deployment. He went to his new assignment as the plane landed at Fort Bragg. His picture was taken with Ikar and then the dog was taken back to Afghanistan to be part of the training program again. Unfortunately, the dog would experience something quite different.
When Ikar got to Afghanistan, there wasn’t an immediate need for his service. He was supposed to be in a kennel for a few weeks but ended up being sheltered for 17 months. That is when Mission K9 Rescue got involved. They learned about what was taking place and they intervened. The president of the organization, Kristin Maurer worked to free the dog and a few others that had been put aside. They were considered heroes but they were not being treated as heroes.
Kristin worked hard to find the original handlers of Ikar and the other dogs. When Army Specialist McFarlane woke up one morning to discover Facebook messages from people wanting to know if he had worked with Ikar in the past, he was disappointed to learn what had happened to the dog. Mission K9 Rescue was able to ship the dog home. McFarlane was concerned that the dog wouldn’t recognize him but the moment that they saw each other in the airport, he knew that there was no reason to fear.
You can see that moment in this video: