Soldier and dog are fast friends in the wake of war

WILLIAMSBURG

Capt. Jae Barclay and the chocolate Labrador retriever took little time on Tuesday afternoon to reunite.

Barclay scratched the dog's head with a bandaged hand. Bryant sniffed a little. Soon, his thick brown tail whipped the legs of his owner.

Both had spent the past several months in training.

On Aug. 19, 2006, Capt. Barclay drove in the lead vehicle of a convoy escort out of a remote base in Afghanistan. Five soldiers filled the armored Humvee, with Barclay, the platoon leader, up front with the driver.

A large homemade bomb tore through the vehicle. The gunner and two soldiers in the rear were thrown from the vehicle and killed.

Barclay and the driver survived the blast and subsequent hourlong firefight. After the battle, they were evacuated to a field hospital.

Within a few days, Barclay returned to the United States to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

He had suffered burns over 40 percent of his body, including his face, arms and torso.

It's been a slow healing process, said his father, Brig. Gen. James Barclay III, who's stationed at the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk. "He went through some tough months."

The younger Barclay, a 2000 graduate of Kemspville High School, had followed his father into the Army after college. The explosion, on his first deployment, is putting an early end to his military career at age 26.

After months of surgeries and therapy, basically training to return to a normal life, he decided he needed another project - find and teach a pup to hunt pheasant and waterfowl.

The elder Barclay could only shake his head at the idea. But, he said, "You're not going to tell him no."

Jae took his family to a dog breeder near San Antonio to look for a chocolate Lab. The breeder showed him to an overturned boat, he said. Several puppies wiggled out from under the hull and into the sun. One strode from the litter and introduced himself to Jae's wife, Sierra.

They named him Bryant, after the famous college football coach in the family's native Alabama.

But the peppy Bryant proved a little more dog than the family could manage. Jae could hardly clench his fingers around a leash. He had his own training to manage.

Bryant went to Norfolk, to join Jae's parents.

A Williamsburg trainer, Marc Illman, took in the general's Brittany spaniel, known as Bama, and Bryant for boarding. When he heard about Jae 's plight, he insisted on training Bryant for free. He had never made such an offer before, he said. A typical month's board and training at the Pet Resort at Greensprings runs $750 plus expenses.

Illman spent 3-1/2 months converting the bounding puppy into a disciplined dog ready to leap from a boat or to hold still for an order to retrieve. "This," Illman said, "is a great dog."

Jae Barclay took Bryant's leash Tuesday afternoon, his hands and arms still bandaged but stronger. Bryant lay belly down on the cool stone floor, quietly reunited at the foot of his master.

The pair will soon return to Texas, hunting season just a few months ahead.

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com