Rebecca’s War Dog of the Week: Ddaphne comes home from war alone

By Rebecca Frankel
Best Defense chief canine correspondent

Before he went to war, Sgt. James Ide told his wife, Mandy, how he wanted the news of his death delivered to friends and family in the event that he was killed while on tour in Afghanistan. And on Aug. 29 she posted the following note on her facebook page:

I do not know what to say, but this is the way Jimmy asked me to tell his friends. Jimmy passed away this morning. He died in combat in [Afghanistan]. Jimmy loved his job and if he could choose a way to go this would be it.”

Sgt. Ide’s unit had been “attacked with small arms fire near Hyderabad, Helmand Province, Afghanistan,” and he succumbed to the wounds he received during the onslaught. Ide, who had also served a tour in Korea and two others in Iraq, is described by family and friends a lover of animals who “enjoyed writing poetry and riding motorcycles and was endlessly curious about the world.” The 32-year-old handler is survived by his wife, their two small children, and Ddaphne the bomb-sniffing dog who was on patrol with him the day he died.

Ddaphne, a five-year-old Belgian Malinois who loves to fetch, was with Ide for four years and was “always at his side.” Though the dog made it through the late August attack that killed her trainer, but she suffered severe PTSD as a result of the ordeal and the military decided she had to retire from service.

When Mandy Ide heard that Ddaphne “had not been hurt in the attack that killed her husband, she had no doubt that she wanted Ddaphne with her and the children. … ‘It’s the last connection to him.'”

And last week Ddaphne arrived in Festus, Missouri, to join her rightful home with the Ides. But it was months about before Ddpahne was family-ready. First, she had to recover from the stress of the attack and to shed the rigorous life as an IED detection dog. As Army Staff Sgt. Skipper Green, a kennel master and buddy of Sgt. Ide’s, who trained Ddaphne these last few months, said: “It was letting her realize she didn’t have to be on guard, letting her relax.”

Reportedly, Ddaphne is taking to her new lifestyle with tremendous ease — she’s been playing fetch with the Ide’s two-year-old son, Jas, who was named after his father. It was a good fit from the start. Mandy Ide went to visit Ddaphne with Jas the night the dog arrived in the country and posted this message on her Facebook page:

Me and Jas got to hang out with Ddaphne last night and it went AMAZING. She did so well with us. I can’t wait to have her home with me.”