Support for soldiers

5 LCC K-9 and Kare 9 Comfort Dogs cheer on airmen during critical competition in Texas  

At Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, a lap around the installation is 3.2 miles.

This week, more than 1,000 soldiers from Texas and Oklahoma made three laps for the annual Warfighter Spirit's Norwegian Foot March, a timed 18.6-mile ruck march competition with high-ranking military personnel watching and foreign military badge honors on the line.

With thousands of family members, fellow soldiers, Department of Defense personnel, and media in attendance, five Lutheran Church Charities K-9 and Kare 9 Comfort Dog teams from Texas and Oklahoma cheered on the competitors, providing emotional care throughout the stress-inducing, 8-hour event, in which airmen carry a 25-pound dry rucksack over the course. The competition is designed to promote  endurance, resilience and joint-force readiness.

Lackland AFB officials anticipated that as many as 400 soldiers would not meet their target time and fail the event, not earning their foreign military badge.

Competitors who fall short are heartbroken after dedicating hundreds of hours to training for the event.

​LCC Kare 9 Comfort Dogs Elijah (Our Redeemer - Wichita Falls, TX), Joy (Gloria Dei - Houston, TX), and Martha (Bethany - Austin, TX) joined LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs Persis (Christ The Redeemer - Tulsa, OK) and Triton (Messiah - Plano, TX) to bring a calm, steady, reassuring presence for competitors, their families, and other military members gathered at the base’s Basic Military Training Pfingston Reception Center.

The LCC contingent, which featured veterans from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force among the handlers, were uniquely experienced to connect with and encourage the military members and their loved ones.

LCC Kare 9 Military Ministry is an outreach by veterans for veterans and active-duty military personnel. Kare 9 handlers and their dogs are trained to visit military installations, VA hospitals, VFW halls, veteran clinics, Traumatic Brain Injury Care Centers, Yellow Ribbon Ceremonies, and homebound veterans, bringing the mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ.  

LCC thanks the teams who cheered on these soldiers:

Nancy Opheim (U.S. Air Force) and JoAnn Kurtz with Elijah Kare 9 (Our Redeemer - Wichita Falls, TX)
Karen Gastler and Kim Gastler (U.S. Navy) with Joy Kare 9 (Gloria Dei - Houston, TX)
Jim Shivertaker (U.S. Army) and Ken Wehmeyer (U.S. Army) with Martha Kare 9 (Bethany - Austin, TX)
Lori Knoepfel and Diane Fager with Persis (Christ The Redeemer - Tulsa, OK)
Jerry & Jane Baedke with Triton (Messiah - Plano, TX)