Afghan mutt now stateside

By FRED MANN
The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA | He saw a squirrel the other day in his new back yard in Derby, Kan., and chased it up a tree.
First time he’d ever done that. He hadn’t seen squirrels, or trees, in Afghanistan.

It was a big moment for ETTy, a black and white mutt that was adopted in Afghanistan in December by 1st Lt. Chris Corman of Derby and some of his Marine buddies.

Corman, 28, was stationed with about 20 other Marines in Mehtar Lam. For nine months, they served as an embedded training team with a unit of the Afghan National Army. So they named the mutt ETTy, for Embedded Training Team puppy. They raised him on chow-hall food and care packages from home.

When their families learned they had a dog, Corman said, “All of our care packages quickly turned from being magazines and anything we wanted to being dog food.”

They thought about leaving ETTy for the next team, but changed their minds. “He got to be such a member of the group, we didn’t want to leave him,” Corman said. When plans fell through for another Marine to take him, Corman stepped up.

Back home in Derby, Corman’s parents, Dan and Peggy Corman, raised $4,000 to have ETTy flown to stay with them. A volunteer animal rescue group in Afghanistan, Tigger House, arranged the trip.

It didn’t go smoothly. ETTy became ill with respiratory problems in Kabul, delaying his departure for a month. An American vet gave him a 50-50 chance to live.

But antibiotics worked, and ETTy was flown to Islamabad, Pakistan, where he was bumped from connecting flights to New York for animals that were flying with passengers. He eventually did reach New York, then flew to Kansas City, where Dan and Peggy Corman picked him up.

They had one of Chris Corman’s shirts with them to give ETTy a familiar scent. Corman recently flew into Wichita from Okinawa. He will report for a new assignment in Virginia on Oct. 1. He plans to take ETTy along once he finds housing.
After a subdued reunion at the airport, dog and owner returned to their home in Derby. That’s when the real reunion happened, said Peggy Corman. Chris Corman and ETTy wandered out to the back patio, and ETTy started wagging his tail. Corman hugged him.

Saturday morning, they went for a jog, ETTy running close to Corman’s side.

Posted on Sat, Sep. 26, 2009 10:15 PM