Cpl. Kory Wiens was so fond of Cooper, the military dog he worked with, that he planned to stay in the Army long enough to adopt him when the Labrador retriever’s bomb-sniffing career was over.
But Wiens and Cooper were killed by an improvised bomb while patrolling in Iraq in 2007.
The two remain united in death and in memory: Their ashes were buried together in Wiens’ hometown of Dallas, Ore., and on Friday, an infantry post in Colorado dedicated a dog park in their honor.
“We’re overwhelmed,” Pat McAlister, Wiens’ grandmother, said in a telephone interview. “We’re touched, we really are.”
Wiens’ father, Kevin Wiens Sr., along with Kory’s siblings — brother Kevin Jr. and sister Lindsay — watched as the Cpl. Wiens and Cooper Dog Park was dedicated at Fort Carson, south of Colorado Springs. Wiens had no formal tie to the Army base, but officials there wanted to honor his memory, a spokesman said.
McAlister said she didn’t know what drew her 20-year-old grandson to become a dog handler, but he grew close to Cooper.
“When he would come home on leave, he actually was more concerned (about Cooper). He couldn’t bring Cooper home, and he would always say, ‘He’s like my kid.’ “
Wiens signed up for three years in the Army but planned to re-enlist in hopes of remaining Cooper’s handler and then adopting him when Cooper was retired, his father and grandmother said.
Wiens and Cooper shared a room in Iraq, with each getting his own cot.
“When the Army sent back his things,” McAlister said, “there were so many dog toys.”
