An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Team Minot bids farewell to MWD “Kitty”

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christian Sullivan
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Hero. Veteran. Partner. Friend. Those were some of the words Staff Sgt. Roland Garcia, 5th Security Forces Squadron military working dog handler, used to describe Kitty, a military working dog at Minot Air Force Base, who passed in her sleep Jan. 20.

Kitty was set to retire in February after serving as an MWD for nine years. Instead, on her birthday, members from around the base honored her sacrifices.

"She was deployed once in 2008 to Southwest Asia, which is rare for being stationed here (Minot). She's the only dog that I know of from here that's been deployed to that location," Garcia said. "She's been on over 20 secret service missions to provide protection for the president, heads of state, vice president, things of that nature."

Like all other Air Force MWD's, Kitty completed her initial K-9 training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  There, she was part of a class that received training in patrolling, drugs, explosives and detection.  According to the 341st Training Squadron's website, K-9s are used as a force multiplier with their unique skills offering the ability to prevent current and future attacks.  Once K-9s complete their training at Lackland, they are then sent to operational units throughout the Department of Defense.      

"Her initial training was completed at Lackland Air Force Base at the dog training school, where she received her basic training," Garcia said. "There she learned obedience, patrol and detection training which typically takes around two months."

According to officials, K-9s are usually German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Labrador Retrievers and occasionally a mixed breed or other sporting or herding type dogs.

"She was an explosives dog, so we had to make sure that she's trained in explosives at least twice a month," Garcia said. "She was also an attack dog, which means she's patrol trained. She was also trained to find people stuck in buildings and in open areas."

According to MWD handlers on base, Kitty was set to retire early due to medical complications that prevented her from performing at levels the Air Force requires.

"She had an issue where her body wasn't processing her proteins, so fluid would escape her intestines, which made her start to bloat and underperform," Garcia said.

After almost a decade of military service, Garcia was set to adopt Kitty. 

"I was able to adopt her," Garcia said. "President Bill Clinton passed a law in 2000 that allowed MWDs to be adopted by their handlers, someone in the military in general or even a civilian instead of being put down."

Although Kitty was only retired for one month, her handlers indicated her service to the DoD and members of the base will leave a lifetime of memories.

"We went on a temporary duty assignment for a secret service mission to La Crosse, Wisconsin and everyone was giving her so much praise for her work ethic," Garcia said. "She wouldn't stop searching in every building. She ended up finding an empty magazine in a news van that all the other dogs missed."

A memorial service was held for Kitty Feb. 2, at the base theater.