Rex(XXIII)

Sergeant Rex (E168) was a Marine Corps K-9 dog who was trained as a patrol and explosive hunting dog. The German Shepherd was born in April, 2001. Rex was initially paired with Military Police K-9 handler and corporal Megan Leavey at Camp Pendleton in California. The duo served two deployments together in Iraq: They were first deployed to Fallujah in 2005 and subsequently served a second deployment to Ramadi in 2006. It was during this second deployment that they were both wounded by an improvised explosive device. Leavey first sought to adopt Rex after the bomb blast incident to no avail. In the wake of Rex developing facial palsy that rendered him unable to continue with his bomb-sniffing duties, Leavey was finally able to gain custody of Rex in April, 2012. Rex lived the last eight months of his life with Leavey. He died at age 11 in December, 2012. Both Leavey and Rex were inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans' Hall of Fame in Albany, New York in May, 2018.