{"id":203,"date":"2011-05-18T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/?p=203"},"modified":"2011-05-18T23:46:36","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:46:36","slug":"military-dog-saves-four-soldiers-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/military-dog-saves-four-soldiers-in-afghanistan.html","title":{"rendered":"Military Dog Saves Four Soldiers in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/valdo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-204\" title=\"Valdo the dog\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/210\/2011\/05\/valdo-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" \/><\/a>On the battlefield in Herat, Afghanistan, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Lee,\u00a0Private 1st Class Ben Bradley and two other soldiers with the Red Platoon, Bulldog troop found themselves in peril. A rocket propelled grenade penetrated their fighting position putting them in direct line of deadly sharp shrapnel. That&#8217;s when Valdo, a 7 year old combat dog went to work. He used his large German Shepherd frame to shield the soldiers and take on the brunt of the shrapnel. Valdo was injured but his tough canine skin and thick fur saved his life. A human, even in uniform, might not have been as lucky. Pfc. Bradley was clear afterwards,\u00a0\u201cIf Valdo wasn\u2019t here, I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019d be dead right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Valdo is recovering but will not be allowed back into active duty. No worries though, Bradley has plans to adopt him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>PLEASE hit the &#8220;Like&#8221; button above to share the Good News and add\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews<\/a> to your favorites. New stories every day!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>You may also enjoy these related Beliefnet features:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Love-Family\/Pets\/Galleries\/Life-Lessons-From-Our-Dogs.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Life Lessons from Our Dogs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Love-Family\/Pets\/2009\/08\/Dog-Quotes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Inspirational Quotes About Dogs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Love-Family\/Pets\/Quiz\/Dog-Spirituality.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Quiz: The Spirituality of Dogs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT VALDO BELOW<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L13fwQPrFfU\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L13fwQPrFfU<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the battlefield in Herat, Afghanistan, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Lee,\u00a0Private 1st Class Ben Bradley and two other soldiers with the Red Platoon, Bulldog troop found themselves in peril. A rocket propelled grenade penetrated their fighting position putting them in direct line of deadly sharp shrapnel. That&#8217;s when Valdo, a 7 year old combat&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,84],"tags":[358,85,86],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heroes","category-incredible-animals","tag-animals","tag-dog","tag-heroes-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Military Dog Saves Four Soldiers in Afghanistan - Good News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/military-dog-saves-four-soldiers-in-afghanistan.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Military Dog Saves Four Soldiers in Afghanistan - Good News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the battlefield in Herat, Afghanistan, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Lee,\u00a0Private 1st Class Ben Bradley and two other soldiers with the Red Platoon, Bulldog troop found themselves in peril. A rocket propelled grenade penetrated their fighting position putting them in direct line of deadly sharp shrapnel. That&#8217;s when Valdo, a 7 year old combat&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/military-dog-saves-four-soldiers-in-afghanistan.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-18T11:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-19T03:46:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/valdo-300x213.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"agreyson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Military Dog Saves Four Soldiers in Afghanistan - Good News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/military-dog-saves-four-soldiers-in-afghanistan.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Military Dog Saves Four Soldiers in Afghanistan - Good News","og_description":"On the battlefield in Herat, Afghanistan, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Lee,\u00a0Private 1st Class Ben Bradley and two other soldiers with the Red Platoon, Bulldog troop found themselves in peril. A rocket propelled grenade penetrated their fighting position putting them in direct line of deadly sharp shrapnel. 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