Tech Sgt. Daniel Wilson and his military working dog worked side-by-side to save his squad mates' lives on a patrol in Afghanistan on Sept. 10, 2013.
Wilson and his dog, also named Dan, sniffed out an improvised explosive device that dark night, chased down and killed shot an insurgent, and when a ferocious ambush erupted, the two cleared a path that let the squad escape the withering insurgent machine gun fire.
Dan was so effective on that and dozens of other missions that the Taliban even called out a hit on him.
A month later, Wilson put his own life on the line and repaid his debt to Dan when a suspected insurgent motorcyclist tried to kill the dog. Wilson shoved Dan out of the way and absorbed the brunt of the motorcycle's impact, leaving him with critical injuries to his shoulders, knee and ankles.
He is one of 24 airmen honored for heroism in the Air Force's latest Portraits in Courage volume.
The whole day felt weird
Wilson, a military working dog kennel master for the 377th Security Forces Group at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, was deployed with his dog, Dan to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in 2013. During more than 60 outside-the-wire missions working with Army Pathfinders, 1st Calvary and an Air Force security forces unit dubbed "The Reapers," Wilson and Dan recovered 14 landmines, 12 rockets and three improvised explosive devices.
On Sept. 10, Wilson and Dan were ordered to accompany a team into terrain so mountainous, they had to travel on foot. Their job was to help the team search for IEDs and call an EOD technician when they found one.
"As soon as we left the trucks, the whole day felt very weird," Wilson said. The locals were acting uneasy, he said. The team arrived at an Afghan police station troops had been to several times in the past. But instead of the usual friendly greetings and offers of chai, Wilson said, the police told them to leave and wouldn't talk to them.
Wilson wanted to turn back, but the team was ordered to continue. As they moved on, several people in Afghan army uniforms trailed them from the tree line for about 5 kilometers.
Wilson's team got a message that Bagram had just been mortared, and were ordered to pursue the insurgents believed to be responsible into their compound and capture them.
As the team walked down a dark, unfamiliar path, Wilson noticed a man wearing an Afghan army uniform standing in the middle of the road with an AK-47. Suddenly, the man took off running.
"I did what all dog handlers always dream of doing," Wilson said. "I sent my dog to attack the guy."
Wilson and the rest of the team followed Dan in hot pursuit of the insurgent, when after a few seconds, Dan skidded to a complete stop and went into a down position. Wilson said he had never seen Dan do that before and became alarmed.
Wilson drew his M4 carbine and shone his infrared light, and saw a mortar protruding from the side of the road. He said he shot and neutralized shot the insurgent, who by that point was behind a bush. The Air Force later said it was unclear whether the insurgent was killed.
The whole area suddenly erupted in machine gun fire. Insurgents were firing two PK Russian machine guns in an X pattern from about 25 to 30 meters away.
"It was a textbook ambush," Wilson said. "It was the absolute worst position we could be in."
Dan stayed on the IED the whole time. One of Wilson's squad mates, his spotter, ran next to Dan and started laying down suppressive fire, not realizing an IED was 10 feet away.
Meanwhile, Wilson was firing at enemy troops on the other side. When he realized his spotter was lying right next to the IED, he got close enough to alert hem to get away.
After 20 minutes of continuous small arms fire, Wilson realized the team had to get out fast before somebody got hurt or killed. His fire team broke contact and regrouped with their squad leader, who ordered him "to get us the hell out of there." He recalled a small goat trail about 50 meters back heading up to a cliff that could provide a way out.
Wilson and Dan went down the narrow path and saw a streamer hanging off of a wire, which was how the insurgents marked their IEDs. They cleared the area, and he relocated his fire team to his position. He then recalled the other two fire teams, and they climbed up a cliff that was at a roughly 65 to 70 degree incline — "it seemed like it was straight up," he said — while taking constant fire. Once they were on the high ground, they laid down suppressive fire on the enemy and Wilson secured a route back to the squad's mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles. Not one of the nine members of the squad was injured that day. They killed two of the at least 12 insurgents who engaged them.
But Dan's success that day and on many earlier missions landed the dog on a Taliban hit list. A week later, an intelligence report said insurgents had targeted a military working dog without a tail. Dan does not have a tail. Intelligence reports also came back about possible suicide bombers on motorcycles.
Wilson and Dan were kept on-base for a while, but Wilson insisted the pair be sent back out. About a month after the Sept. 10 mission, the two were searching for IEDs on a road, where the traffic was stopped. As Dan sniffed a truck, Wilson saw a motorcyclist barreling down on the dog at about 50 mph.
"I saw him make direct eye contact with my dog and accelerate even faster," Wilson said. "I yelled at my dog to get down. Whenever I yelled at my dog, he thought he was doing something wrong, so he turned around to see what I was yelling about."
Dan was directly in the motorcyclist's path. Without a moment's hesitation, Wilson said he sprinted across the road and shoved his dog out of the way just before impact.
"I woke up, they were putting me on a gurney to put me on a truck to CASEVAC [casualty evacuation] me back to base," Wilson said.
Wilson received the Air Force Commendation Medal with Valor and the Air Force Combat Action Medal for his actions those two days, which the Air Force said saved the lives of 12 airmen as well as Dan.
Dan is retired now, but he still lives with Wilson on base at Kirtland.
"He had done his job," Wilson said.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
