Sully H.W. Bush, the former service dog and companion to the late President George H.W. Bush, took a field trip Monday to visit with veterans at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C.
The beloved Labrador Retriever is famous for his devotion to the late president, and for faithfully staying by his casket in 2018. At the request of the late president, Sully is now a working member of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s Facility Dog Program in Bethesda, Maryland. He helps with therapy for wounded, ill and injured service members.
His rank is HM1, Hospital Corpsman First Class.
“It’s an honor to have Sully visit with our veterans here at AFRH. Dogs always boost the morale of our veteran residents,” said Susan Bryhan, administrator of the retirement home campus, in a press release about the visit.
Sully was escorted by two Walter Reed command project managers, including Amy O’Connor, a licensed clinical social worker and a certified dog trainer who leads the facility dog program.
Angela Kinart also toured with Sully. Her Walter Reed office helped lead the testing for COVID-19 and the vaccine distribution for the AFRH residents. The professionals at Walter Reed continue to play an important role in caring for the residents at the retirement home through the pandemic, officials said. With an average age of 83, the residents are considered among the population most vulnerable to COVID-19.
Residents of the AFRH campuses, located in Washington, D.C. and in Gulfport, Mississippi, are retired or certain former enlisted members.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
