Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Angela Cardone, a military working dog handler with Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, conducts training at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Oct. 19, 2018. (Lance Cpl. Seth Rosenberg/Marine Corps)
And now, to celebrate their battlefield contributions, these brave canines will have an honorary postage stamp of their own.
The new red and blue “forever” stamps will feature a German shepherd, Labrador retriever, Belgian Malinois and Dutch shepherd ― dog breeds typically selected for use by the military ― standing adjacent to a white star.
“The Postal Service honors the nation’s brave and loyal military working dogs with this new booklet of 20 stamps,” a Tuesday press release announced.
The exact release date for the stamps is yet to be announced.
The art was created by DKNG Studios in collaboration with USPS art director Greg Breeding.
Additionally released stamps for 2019 feature grand slam tennis champion Maureen “Little Mo” Connolly Brinker, work by abstraction artist Ellsworth Kelly, a patriotic red, white and blue star, and locomotives on the transcontinental railroad.
Images of each breed to be honored in military action can be seen below.
Sgt. Gabriel Garcia, assigned to the 513th Military Police Detachment, 93rd Military Police Battalion, gets ready to let Zeusz, a German Shepherd military working dog assigned to the 513th MP Det., 93rd MP Bn., show off a controlled aggression technique at the detachment’s K-9 kennel at Fort Bliss Aug. 25, 2017. (Wendy Brown/Army)Sgt. Joseph Adams, a 2nd Law Enforcement Battalion military working dog-handler, shouts commands at his dog, Gunner, as they swim in the Area 5 pool at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Aug. 3, 2018. (Cpl. Austyn Saylor/Marine Corps)Senior Airman Trey T. Weston, a K-9 handler assigned to the 71st Security Forces Squadron, practices detection work with his Belgian Malinois military working dog, Cubu, Jan. 24, 2018, on Vance Air Force Base. (Airman Zoe T. Perkins/Air Force)Kyra, a Dutch Shepherd military working dog assigned to the 513th Military Police Detachment, 93rd Military Police Battalion, runs through an obstacle at the detachment’s K-9 kennel at fort Bliss Aug. 25, 2017. (Wendy Brown, Army)
The project was scheduled to take 10 years and cost $16 billion. Nearly eight years later, only six of VA’s 170-plus medical sites are using the software.
The figures are the latest available from federal census data and suggest limited progress on the issue of suicide prevention by Veterans Affairs leaders.