SECRET SERVICE DOG DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL

One night as the Obamas were in the White House enjoying a movie, a guy jumped the fence and tried crashing their family get-together.

He never made it. He was quickly cornered by a Secret Service Belgian Malinois named Hurricane.

Hurricane met him halfway on the lawn and engaged the individual and he and him got into an intense battle," said Hurricane's handler Marshall Mirarchi.

Mirarchi was standing close by letting his partner do what he was trained to do. In the end, they arrested the man, but Hurricane did suffer some injuries. The kind that forced early retirement.

When people say the dog did his job of protecting the First Family, Mirarchi says that's not really what happened.

People say that's because he's protecting the President. I say, he doesn't know the President is back there - that's me, he's not going to let that guy get to Dad," he said.

When Hurricane retired, Mirarchi quickly adopted him, and he still keeps him active because Hurricane loves to work and keep busy.

His 15 seconds of fame didn't end that night on the White House lawn either. Now, he along with five other dogs, are getting national recognition from Congress as heroes.

Hurricane will become the very first dog in America to receive brand new recognition.

He will be the first dog to receive the Distinguished Service Medal, pretty cool, Mirarchi said.

The nonprofit groups Animals in War and Peace, The Livingood Group, along with U.S. War Dogs Association, helped lobby congressional lawmakers to recognize K9's who put their lives on the line to protect others.

While six dogs are being honored, three of them will be getting their recognition posthumously. Other Countries have for years given this kind of recognition, but for the U.S. this is new.

 
FECO and MPC ZIGGY

FECO, U.S. Department of Homeland Security U.S. Coast Guard, California
A member of the Canine Explosive Detection Team at Maritime Safety and Security Team San Francisco. Still serving, Feco has tirelessly conducted over 1,355 searches, including vehicles, cargo vessels and ferries, buildings, luggage, people, and mass transit facilities. Feco has spent over 2,335 hours conducting more than 584 demanding patrols around the Bay area protecting California's coastline.

MPC ZIGGY, U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC), is a multi-purpose canine. He was deployed five times to four separate countries and conducted over fifty heliborne direct action raids and assisted in discovering forty-three weapon caches, twelve homemade explosive facilities, one vehicle borne IED, 330 anti-personnel IED's, and over 5,000 pounds of homemade explosives.

To read the complete article, see:
Retired Secret Service K9 to be first dog to receive Distinguished Service Medal (ocal12.com/news/nation-world/retired-secret-service-k9-to-be-first-dog-to-receive-distinguished-service-medal-president-white-house-hurricane-marshall-mirarchi-livingood-group-us-war-dogs-association-vienna-virgina-cincinnati-ohio)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
2022 ANIMALS IN WAR AND PEACE MEDALS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n09a36.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web