Great news for Army Spc. Brent Grommet and his war dog Matty. This past weekend the two, who had been separated for 16 months, were reunited.
Grommet tells Maureen Callahan of the The New York Post, “I’m about the happiest I’ve ever been.”
Grommet, 23, and Matty, a German Shepherd, were deployed to Afghanistan to detect IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). Grommet and Matty were injured when an IED exploded near them.
Grommet returned to America with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), traumatic brain injury, breathing problems, severe chronic back pain, and migraines. He was hoping to be reunited with Matty thanks to Robby’s Law, which was signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 that gives military dog handlers the first right to adopt their animals if they are injured together.
Unfortunately, when they both returned to the U.S. in 2013, the Army separated the pair. “It’s like someone took your kid in front of you — and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Grommet says.
The person in charge of military dog adoptions didn’t to act on Grommet’s requests to reveal Matty’s location.
Thankfully, an unnamed source stepped in on Grommet’s behalf and the two were reunited over the weekend.
“I was speechless,” Grommet says. “It took everything out of me.”
As the two were about to meet, Grommet was worried that Matty forgot him; that was until he called Matty’s name and the dog ran toward him, jumped up on him, and gave him doggie kisses.
For Grommet, Matty, “brings a lot of light into everything.”
Sources: The New York Post, Washington Times, Concerned Veterans for America
