A visit from Marley

Photo By Sgt. Jesse Smith | First Lt. Amanda O'Leary, the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade medical operations officer, and her dog, Marley, visits with a Soldier on Camp Humphreys, South Korea. O'Leary is currently in the process of getting Marley certified to be a part of a Red Cross volunteer pet visitation program.  

CAMP HUMPHREYS, 41, SOUTH KOREA

02.23.2015

Story by Sgt. Jesse Smith 

2nd Combat Aviation Brigade

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea – Dogs have been used in many different roles to help the military from service dogs to bomb dogs. Some are used to help comfort Soldiers and have been doing so since World War II. Who would have thought a dog whose mother was saved from a South Korean meat market could maybe one day serve our Soldiers? Amanda O’Leary does.

First Lt. Amanda O’Leary, the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade medical operations officer, is trying to get her dog, Marley, into a Red Cross volunteer animal visitation program on Camp Humphreys, South Korea.

Marley’s mom was rescued from a meat market in South Korea and had nine puppies that were split into different homes. O’Leary was able to Foster one and took home Marley April 28, 2014.

She said she first started to realize the visitation program would be good for Marley when one day O’Leary had to bring Marley into work after getting him shots at the vet. She said something interesting happened when she had to go to a meeting and left Marley with one of her Soldiers.

“When I came back from my meeting all of the Soldiers were crowded around him and really excited to see him,” O’Leary said.

From then on she started to take Marley to her unit’s organization days and to staff duty during off-duty hours. She said Soldiers make it a point to come see him.

Another instance from which O’Leary thought the program would be great for Marley was when she brought him in and a Soldier who had been bottling up his emotions changed when he saw Marley.

“While he was holding Marley, he was telling us all of these problems that we didn’t know were going on in his life,” O’Leary said.

She said she thinks Marley can help Soldiers by just being there to comfort them, but he has to become certified through the Red Cross to be a part of the program.

“First he has to go through a temperament test to make sure he is a good fit for the job,” O’Leary said. “Next he will go through a canine good citizen test through the Red Cross.”

She said there is an obedience course the dogs can go through first to help them become certified.

“We are hoping to get Marley certified within the next couple weeks, so he can get out there and start helping Soldiers,” O’Leary said.

She said she is optimistic about Marley becoming certified and is proud about how far he has come. O’Leary believes he can truly serve U.S. Army Soldiers.

• Date Taken: 02.23.2015
• Date Posted: 02.23.2015 01:03
• Story ID: 155130
• Location: CAMP HUMPHREYS, 41, KR