Veteran dog gets full military funeral
KNOX – A war hero, Purple Heart recipient and man’s best friend was buried in front of the VFW Post in Knox Saturday.
"I think about her every day," said Neil Burg, commander of the American Legion in Hamlet.
At the VFW post in Knox, it was a full military honor for the funeral of a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. The ashes of Mira, draped with a small flag, were put in a final resting place right in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. A 21-gun salute rang out and Taps was played for a final salute.
Mira spent half her life as a bomb-sniffing dog in Iraq and Afghanistan before she retired in Hamlet. A Purple Heart recipient, Mira spent six years in combat and was wounded three separate times. She has a military record that shows numerous acts of heroism, including alerting a group of Marines to a bomb, allowing all five of them to get to safety before it exploded.
"Five men or women get to go home and spend time with their families because they're alive, thanks to Mira," Burg said.
But it was in Hamlet, Indiana where she was able to be a dog. She was adopted by Donald Thomas only a few years ago.
"She was an excellent dog, I couldn't have chosen a better one," Thomas said.
It was in Starke County were she was treated by Thomas and others like a veteran and hero and where she was laid to rest as one.
"I know she's going to be missed. She'll be missed for a good many years by the VFW, the American Legion and the people who knew her and worked with her," Thomas said.
Mira was 12 years old. Thomas said she died from lung cancer.
Mira was the first dog to be made a member of the VFW in the state of Indiana, and only the second dog in the state to be made a member of the American Legion. This was the first military funeral in Indiana for a dog that served in combat.
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