Lucy is a stereotypically giddy black labradoodle. She's not what you picture when you think of a military dog serving on the front lines in Afghanistan. She wiggles around the room chasing her tennis ball and thinks my microphone cover is a chew toy.
But her handler, Spc. Heath Garcia, says when Lucy is on a mission, she's all business. She's highly trained to sniff out improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which are the No. 1 killer of civilians and troops in Afghanistan.
"I always tell the guys that work the mine detectors, 'Hey, you can pick up metal; I can't. I can pick up explosives; you can't. So if you want to do a coin flip, see who wants to be in the front, let's do it,' " Garcia says.
Leading The Patrols
Lucy has shown she deserves to be out front on patrols and road-clearing missions. In her 10 months in the southern province of Kandahar, she's found four different IEDs.
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