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An Airman’s Best Friend

Luke Air Force Base boasts daring duo of Sgt. Bravo and Rex

Air Force Staff Sergeant Gabriel Bravo with his work companion, Rex

In the military, as in much of life, securing the right partner can be the difference between success and failure.

Or life and death.

Such is the case with Air Force Staff Sergeant Gabriel Bravo, a military dog handler with the 56th Security Forces Squadron, stationed at Luke Air Force Base.

Staff Sgt. Bravo, an El Centro, Calif., native who entered the Air Force seven years ago, says he greatly respects his partner, Rex, an 8-year-old German shepherd with a deployment record that mirrors the world’s hot spots – Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and even New York City.

Among other training, the two graduated from the Military Working Dog Handlers course, an intensive 11-week training session in San Antonio where handlers and dogs take separate classes. Rex, a friendly-enough dog when he’s with his master, is patrol and explosives certified.

“As a military dog handler, you do everything with your dog. When you’re deployed, you really get attached because you’re together 24/7. He lives with me. He’s my boy,” says Bravo, one of six working-dog handlers at Luke. “We’re not deployed with a bunch of people. Most times it’s just me and my dog, and on the plane he sits with me.”

Once back from deployment, Bravo says Rex can undergo separation anxiety.
“When we come back, he’s not allowed to go home with me, but when I go to work, I pick him up, and he stays with me,” he says of his partner of three years.

Returning from a recent deployment in Iraq, Bravo said Rex used his scent skills on explosives, especially on those troubling convoy operations.
“We go out with the Army and walk patrols. When soldiers do house raids, we go in and search for explosives, we clear roads and check vehicles coming onto the base,” says Bravo, laundry-listing typical duties with Rex. “When they’re out looking for terrorists off base, we go, too, because he can detect people in the fields.”

The pair is also called to help with in-country security. They are called to help protect the president and vice president, and did a 12-day stint at the United Nations General Assembly in 2006.

“We stayed at a five-star hotel. That was rough. Rex had his own bed and he loved it, too.”