Airmen of the 60th Security Forces Squadron at Travis AFB, Calif., held a memorial late last month for military working dog Arko, who had deployed six times over a period of three years to support the war on terror, according to a Feb. 20 release. The eight-year-old dog, who died from natural causes, served in the Air Force for seven years as an explosive detector and patrol dog. Lt. Col. Travis Harsha, 60th SFS commander, said Arko “served with distinction.”
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.