amd_herorollins.jpg

Justin Rollins with puppy “Hero”.

The last photo taken of Army Spec. Justin Rollins captured the animal lover in a moment of unmistakable bliss, seemingly worlds away from the violence all around him.

It was a picture of the 22-year-old soldier from New Hampshire nuzzling a puppy he had found outside an Iraqi police station. And it was taken just a day before he was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra on March 5.

Since then, Rollins’ family had longed to bring the puppy named Hero back to the U.S.

Yesterday, after a two-month effort spearheaded by a U.S. congressman, they finally got their wish.

“It was the last bit of happiness Justin had,” said Rollins’ girlfriend, Brittney Murray, after seeing the 3-month-old puppy for the first time.

Rollins’ parents, Mitchell and Rhonda, were overjoyed when they finally got a chance to embrace their son’s adopted dog, said Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, who orchestrated the long-awaited meeting. Not even the dog pausing to go on the carpet dampened the mood.

“I think he’d be thrilled there was a positive story from the negative thing that happened to us,” Rhonda Rollins said yesterday. “He was such a happy-go-lucky guy.”

The jubilant meeting marked the end of an odyssey that began in April when Hodes was first contacted by Brittney Murray.

Hodes’ office reached out to various branches of the military, and within days, one of Rollins’ fellow soldiers had retrieved the stray puppy and handed her over to a military veterinarian. Once Hero was determined to be in good health, she was cleared for her trip to the U.S.

The 15-pound, floppy-eared pooch arrived Thursday at Kennedy Airport,where she spent a night in customs. She was driven to her new family in New Hampshire yesterday, ending her 6,000-mile journey. Source: The New York Daily News.
amd_heromurray.jpg
Brittney Murray, left, and Rhonda Rollins, girlfriend and mom of slain G.I. Justin Rollins, get to know the puppy Hero that Rollins was photographed with the day before he died.