Stormy stopped. She sensed something ahead. Danger. Her handler, Ron Aiello, didn't see anything, but he had learned to trust the instincts of military dogs, especially Stormy's. He dropped on one knee at her side, peering in the direction she was looking.

It was just in time.

A sniper's bullet whizzed over his lowered head.

"Without Stormy, if I had just walked into that clearing, that sniper would have taken me out," Aiello said. "She saved me that day." And it was that day where Stormy joined the ranks of military dog heroes.

Aiello, a Marine, served in Vietnam with Stormy from 1966 to 1967 as one of the first thirty Marine Scout Dog Teams to be deployed to Vietnam. He has dozens of stories about Stormy saving him and others. While some are as dramatic as the sniper incident, other stories show that military dog heroes saved soldiers in other important ways too.

"I remember one Marine asked if he could pet her and he sat down and hugged her and let her lick his face and they were like that for about ten minutes. When he got up, he was calm and ready. I saw her have that effect on people a number of times," Aiello said. "She was really a therapy dog for all of us. I honestly believe if I'd been there without Stormy I'd be a different person today. We had a great friendship."

Aiello was given just a day's notice that he would be leaving Stormy's side when his thirteen-month tour was up. While he would be heading home, she would stay in Vietnam. A new handler would take his place by her side.

That night, Aiello slept with Stormy in her kennel. The next morning he fed her, patted her, and then walked away.

"That was the last I ever saw of her," he said.

He was heartbroken to leave his friend behind.

Honoring His Friend by Helping Other Military Dogs

Now, fifty years later, Aiello is honoring his wartime friend by making sure military dogs are taken care of for the rest of their lives. Aiello is the president of a nonprofit organization called the United States War Dog Association, which he founded with the help of other Vietnam veteran dog handlers as a way to honor past military dog heroes and care for current ones.

When the group first began working together in 1999, its goal was simply to raise money for a national war dog memorial. Hill's Pet Nutrition supported the cause with donations of items like T-shirts, jackets, and bandannas that the group sold at fundraisers.

"Hill's was a big help," Aiello said. "We raised a lot of money with their support."

But then 9/11 happened.

"So the war memorial was put on the backburner and instead we started sending care packages to dogs and handlers that were deployed," Aiello said. Hill's again stepped in, this time with donations of treats to be included in care packages. Aiello isn't sure how many care packages the group has sent through the years.

"I stopped counting at twenty-five thousand," he said.

As the war in the Middle East continued to grow in scope, so did the needs of the war dogs, Aiello said. So the U.S. War Dog Association began a medical expense program for military dog heroes, paying for treatments ranging from PTSD to chemotherapy.