When the Surette household ready to relocate again to the US with the Department of Defense, they made certain to take their two dogs, Soju, a five-year outdated French Bulldog, and Winter, an 11-year outdated Old English Bulldog, with them.
However, what was meant to be the beginning of a brand new chapter for the Surette’s led to tragedy, once they had been informed that Soju and Winter had not survived the military-contracted flight from Osan Air Base in South Korea to Seattle.
Anne Surette, whose husband, Timothy, is a civilian worker of the Defense Intelligence Agency, took to social media Facebook to grieve and air her frustrations over the tragic incident.
According to Surette, their journey started on August 17, 2023. They took an Air Mobility Command (AMC) flight from South Korea to Seattle. They first had a two-hour layover in Japan, the place they had been allowed entry to the dogs from the cargo maintain. Surette was then in a position to walk the dogs and feed them.
When the household reboarded the plane, they had been knowledgeable that there can be a delay as a consequence of “weight issues” of the plane. According to Surette, through the two-hour delay the plane’s air-con was off, and that nobody, together with the dogs, had been allowed to depart the airplane.
The household was given updates by army personnel who stated that they had gone to examine the dogs and provides them water.
However, when the household reached Seattle they had been knowledgeable that Winter and Soju had not survived the almost 10-hour flight.
Surette stated that when her husband went to examine on the 2 dogs, he discovered that Winter’s water bottle had disappeared, and that Soju’s water bottle was empty. Staff weren’t in a position to reply their questions.
“Why didn’t they take the dogs out when we had to wait in the heat for almost 2 hours? The most important question is, what happened that it was so hot for Winter and Soju to suffer and then left us?” Surette lamented in her Facebook put up.
Ironically, Surette stated that the explanation they opted to take the Air Mobility Command-contracted flight is as a result of it was meant to be temperature-controlled.
“While we cannot change the outcome of this unfortunate situation, AMC leadership is analyzing the circumstances of this mission and are committed to doing all they can to reduce negative outcomes while still providing pet transport for our service members,” a spokesperson from the Air Mobility Command told Military.com.
In July 2022, a 10-year-old Pomeranian combine named Kolbie owned by a Marine Corps household died from heatstroke throughout a Patriot Express flight in Japan. Within the identical month, a French bulldog died in its journey crate on the Kadena Air Base terminal in Okinawa, in accordance with the army newspaper Stars and Stripes.
