Wife training dog to assist husband hurt in Iraq blasts

LAYTON — While Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Cory Chartier was recovering in Iraq from a bomb blast this week, his bull mastiff, Roxie, was at Wal-Mart learning how to be his service dog to help around the house and in public if he falls or can't bend over to pick up something.

Chartier's wife, Carie, received a call about 9 p.m. Tuesday from her husband, who said he had been injured in another explosion. It's the second time he has been hurt by an improvised explosive device (IED) in as many deployments to the war-torn country.

As for how close he was to this latest blast, "he didn't share that with me," she said.

"He said there had been another blast," she said. No one was killed, but one other soldier was also injured.

Carie Chartier got to see her husband in a video conference Wednesday afternoon, the first time she had seen him in about two months.

"He looked very tired and like he's in pain," she said. But he was in uniform and not in a hospital bed, which was good news for her.

On Wednesday morning, she had been at Wal-Mart with Roxie, who was outfitted in a red vest that identified her as a service dog in training. The 11-month-old pooch with an intimidating bark sniffed around the aisles and racks as she took basic commands — sit, stay, lie down — from Chartier's wife.

Carie Chartier was motivated to start training a dog for her husband after an IED explosion left him with an injured back during his first Iraq deployment in 2004-05.

Last year, the Chartiers purchased Roxie for $1,000 from a breeder in Missouri that Cory Chartier found by accident while lost on a back road on his way home after a day of military training. The bull mastiff breed is known to be friendly, protective and eager to please. The intention was that Carie Chartier would train Roxie to help her husband.

"He thinks this is the best thing I've ever tried to do," she said, looking into Roxie's dark eyes.

The first blast left the full-time reservist with two fractured vertebrae. His job is to find bombs while in Iraq and report their locations to explosive-ordnance-disposal teams. When he's home in Clearfield, his daily task is to teach reservists how to find IEDs.

Doing his job now means the stocky 33-year-old soldier and father of five has trouble bending over and picking things up.

"His legs occasionally go numb and he falls," his wife said.