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This is great!

In the photo above, Ratchet takes his last look at Iraq before boarding a plane for the USA.

Operation Baghdad Pups successfully loaded Ratchet on a plane on October 19th. He is now safely home in Minnesota with Gwen Beberg’s parents. The flight, from Kuwait to Dulles Airport to Minnesota, was donated by Northwest Airlines.

Thousands all over were on pins and needles regarding Ratchet’s plight.

This issue was originally blogged by Gwen’s college friend Katie Konrath at her website Get Fresh Minds. She reported to the Minnesota press that she hoped to rally the folks in Minnesota, but never expected the entire USA and half the world to get involved.

By the time this was all done, over 27,000 websites wrote about the story. Over 70,000 people from around the world had signed the petition to release Ratchet. God only knows how many calls and emails were made to the Army and the DOD. Also advocating for Ratchet’s clemency were the Minnesota Senators and Congressmen.

Let this be a lesson to us. If we all take other issues and fight like we did for Ratchet, the American public can take back the USA. Thinks about it folks, we took on the United States Army! They relented! We WON! What’s that say?

Saving Private Ratchet has been our *Happy Thought*. Best wishes to Gwen and Ratchet for a beautiful future.

Because the Army didn’t clear him fast enough he missed the plane. He got cleared 30 minutes before the Baghdad Pups team were to depart Baghdad which was not enough time. I can imagine what Gwen Beberg and her family must feel now.

Here is an update from WCCO.com. This is what the military had to say:

Maj. Daniel Elliott, a spokesman for U.S. forces south of Baghdad, said in a statement Wednesday that the military had no control of the dog.

“Our military working dogs carry rank and are afforded many of the rights and privileges of their fellow soldiers,” he said. “Ratchet is a wild dog indigenous to Iraq. A stray, befriended by a soldier. As such, we do not control him, nor can we ‘order’ him not to leave” the base.

Elliott added that there was nothing preventing SPCA from picking up the dog.

“The dog was at the COP yesterday, he was there today, he will more than likely be there tomorrow,” he said. “To my knowledge we are not holding, restraining or forcibly evacuating him.”

And Elliott said that the military won’t expose soldiers to “to unnecessary risks” by escorting Ratchet to the Baghdad airport.

But the military apparently assured SPCA International and Gwen’s mother, Patricia Beberg, that Ratchet is being watched. The SPCA made arrangements with a private security contractor to escort Ratchet to the airport.

Dear Major Elliott: All I can say is…if that dog is not safely put on an airplane on Sunday, the Military will have hell to pay at the hands of the American Public.

Finally, some decent coverage. Gwen and Ratchet have made CNN, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Great Britan, Australia, Romania, France, Italy, all over. Even the petition Clemency For Ratchet has reached over 30,000 signatures from people all over the world.

The blogosphere is heating up on this issue. If you go here at the For The Love of the Dog, you can read all the updates and comments regarding Gwen and Ratchet.

Today the military confirmed that Ratchet is alive. A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. David Russell, said in an e-mail that the dog was alive. However, he remained silent on any action to get Ratchet to the United States.

After Ratchet was returned to Gwen at her camp in Iraq after being *confiscated*, he went missing. She feared the worse. No one was giving her any information, not even her 1st Sargent. It turns out he was stuffed in a meat freezer. No one is sure if the intent was to hide Ratchet, “freeze him", or if the freezer was even working. Someone did release Ratchet from the freezer. The motive? Nobody knows. But I’d like to just offer my own fairy-tail-happy-ending. Some kind soul over there is trying to get Ratchet out of Iraq for Gwen. And not giving any hints and info along the way so the Big Bad Army Wolf doesn’t find out.

Operation Baghdad Pups will arrive in Baghdad on Wednesday (which is like, Wednesday there now) to pick up other soldier adopted animals and hopes to finally get Ratchet.

Many of us out there have forwarded the sad situation of Gwen and Ratchet onto our own senators. We’ve called the Minnesota senators. We’ve emailed CBS, FOX, the NY Times, and the Washington Post. Not many news outlets are reporting on this yet.

One article appeared today in the Minnesota Star Tribune. But it carried some good information. Gwen Beberg is with the 101st Airborne. Their home base is in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Their Public Affairs office phone number is: 270-798-3025.

The CO is: Major General Jeffrey J. Schloesser
Headquarters, 101st Airborne Division
Fort Campbell
39 Normandy Boulevard
Fort Campbell, Kentucky 42223-5617

The information above is posted as an FYI (of course). But feel free to rattle a few helmets.

Pretty much a case of military injustice.

Sgt. Gwen Beberg befriended this puppy, Ratchet, while serving in Iraq. He was accepted to be “rescued” by Operation Baghdad Pups and was ready to board a transport to the Baghdad Airport. Now Gwen could see her dog executed by her U.S. superiors.

The original story and updates can be found at Katie Konrath’s blog Get Fresh Minds (she is a college friend of Gwen’s). And here is a part of the Bagdad Pups (SPCA International) press release on the situation:

Today, the United States military committed a crime against their own mentally wounded U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq. Commanding officers ordered the confiscation of a dog, Ratchet, befriended by a group of soldiers during a 15th month of deployment. Ratchet has been a lifeline to Sgt. Gwen Beberg. This morning, Ratchet was on his way to SPCA International rescue experts at the Baghdad Airport to be flown home to Gwen’s parents in Minneapolis, MN when Sgt. Beberg’s commanding officers ordered Ratchet confiscated and held in Iraq to face certain death.

It is against military regulations for active duty troops to befriend animals, Soldiers can face immediate court-marshal and some even see their animals brutally murdered by a direct gunshot to the head from commanding officers who will not bend the rules.

Adopting animals by military personnel is a direct violation of General Orders 1A. These *mascots* can be shot on sight by order of Commanding Officers.

I’m not going to get into the “stray dogs from Iraq vs. the homeless animals in the USA” debate. It puts everyone between a rock and a hard place.

I am old enough to consider these soldiers my children. I look at the photos of soldiers and their adopted dogs and cats and see the face of my child. She is 23. She’s not in the military, but she works hard. She loves her animals. And I know exactly how she would feel if one of them was just abruptly taken away from her and put on death row. It breaks my heart and I’m pissed as hell.

Many animals have been rescued out of Iraq over the past few years, so there is a lot of looking the other way at adopted mascots. Some Army official over there must really have a bug up his ass to pull a stunt like this.

There is no reason to keep this dog away from a good life in the USA. He has an owner who loves him and a family that is waiting for him. PLEASE DOD, release this dog!!

This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment; yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog. I looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations. Tearless, I had given orders which brought death to thousands. Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what? By the grief of one dog. - Napoleon Bonaparte. On finding a dog beside the body of his dead master, licking his face and howling, on a moonlit field after a battle. Napoleon was haunted by this scene until his own death.