Last night I attended the first public screening of the new documentary called Always Faithful. So I thought I would share my movie review. It is about the amazing bond between the U.S. Marine Corps and their dogs in the Canine division. The stories focus on their work during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The director Harris Done and one of the Marines in the movie, Mike Dowling, were in attendance and available to answer questions after the screening.
This special screening was a sold out show and a fundraiser for Sherwood Dog Park of Paso Robles. What a wonderful event and a wonderful movie!
Always Faithful follows five Marines, fresh from training, into their deployments for the first time. The handlers and dogs form amazing bonds as they face life and death circumstances. It is truly an amazing story and well worth seeing even if you are not a confirmed dog lover.
The movie, produced by Harris Done is his second story about dogs on the battlefield. He also produced a movie called “War Dogs of the Pacific” about dogs in the military during World War II. Both movies are available through Amazon and I understood that Always Faithful will be released to TV soon.
According to Mike Dowling, the now retired Marine, dogs in the military are currently classified as “equipment” which is something that many people like himself are trying to change. If the dogs can become classified as “canine” teams or something other than “equipment”, when the dog is retired, the military can pay to have them shipped to designated families for retirement. As it is today, there is no financial help in any way. And the classification keeps them from receiving benefits of any kind for their many hours of work in very dangerous conditions.
Always Faithful movie is worth your time to look it up and watch it! And it was a real privilege to have this movie shown for the first time in Paso Robles!
Support the local dog parks here! It’s a great group of people who truly care about not just about their own dogs, but about these special dogs in every area of our military now serving around the world!
