Their son never came back from Iraq, the puppy he saved did: The amazing story of how bereaved parents rescued dog of war



Hero is no ordinary New Hampshire dog.



Hers is a tale that began in war-torn Samarra, Iraq, in early 2007.



Justin Rollins, of 82nd Airborne Division, had found the tiny puppy, one of a litter of eight, living underneath an abandoned portable toilet near his base.



One man and his dog: Justin Rollins befriended a tiny puppy on the night he was killed by an IED in Iraq



Smiling and enjoying the company of the young litter, he and his team-mates took some photos to send home. Just hours later, Justin was killed by an IED.

The happy pictures he had taken and emailed home that night were the last contact he'd have with his girlfriend and family - but the start of an unlikely tale of determination.

Just two weeks later, Justin was given a military funeral in the U.S. His grieving mother, Rhonda Rollins, was asked if there was anything the U.S. military could do to help. Well, yes, she answered.

She wanted to bring the brown and white spotted dog that Justin had befriended on the night of his death back to America.

Her request was certainly an unusual one, but, with the help of Brittney Murray, Justin's girlfriend, the ball started to roll.



Animal contact: Jason Wheeler, left, and Justin took photos of their new friends and sent them home to family. They were the last images Justin sent home



Happier times: Brittney Murray, Justin's girlfriend, helped his mother Rhonda Rollins with lobbying to bring the puppy to the U.S after Justin's death



The high-school sweetheart made six phonecalls and eventually piqued the attention of former New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes , who took up the challenge.

Skip Rollins, Justin's father, spoke about the million-to-one chance of finding the dog - and then getting the clearance to bring it back to the U.S.



The request had to go along 'the chain of command all the way to to the top and then all the way back to the bottom,' he told Animal Planet.



Rhonda told ABC News' 20/20 show: 'They said one in a million. And I had already said, because Justin was a hero, the dog, whether it was male or female, it going to be named Hero.'

An old friend ran the story in a local newspaper and soon Operation Hero had gained the momentum it needed. With the help of the Congressman, strings were pulled within the chain of command.



Puppy lottery: Jason describes the puppy whimpering and crying after they found him. They gave him a bath in a washing machine and prepared him for the long journey to his new home



Luckiest dog in Iraq: 'No one ever expected for it to actually work' said Jason of the unusual plan to bring the Iraqi dog to the U.S.



Jason Wheeler, one of Justin's friends from 82nd Airborne, had originally found the puppies with Justin.



'No one ever expected for it to actually work...' he said of the audacious plan. But one day, 'the call came down: "Hey, we have to get this dog,"' he recalls to Animal Planet.



Against the odds, he helped find the stray puppy months after that fateful night.



'It was crying and whimpering but we were like "You won the puppy lottery and you don't even know it."



'This dog had to think "What the heck just happened to me? I was living underneath the porta-potty, now I'm in a washing machine getting the dirtiest stuff washed off me,"' he told Animal Planet's Saved programme.

New family: Hero is united with Justin's father, Skip, left, girlfriend, Brittney Murray, centre, and Rhonda, right



United at last: After three long months of battling red tape, Hero was delivered to Congressman Hodes' office



Relieved: The perfect moment was only marred by Hero 'christening' the Congressman's office carpet



On May 25, 2007, after three months of logistical battles, needle-in-a-haystack searches and swathes of red tape, Hero arrived at Congressman Hodes' office.



Skip told the ABC: 'One of the biggest decisions for wanting to get Hero out of Iraq was to honor him by saying, this is the last life that he saved, so that's the importance and the love that we have for this dog.'

His wife echoed his sentiments, describing the joy Hero brought, albeit briefly, to her son. 'She gave him the last bit of happiness, by the smiles on his face, when he was holding her, it's just beautiful.'

'We were expecting a little tiny puppy and she'd gotten so big,' Brittney told Saved. Cramped into the small room, the Rollins family, Brittney and military representatives all greeted the animal to its new home town.

'It's the perfect moment,' Brittney remembers. 'She's finally here... and she squatted and peed on [the congressman's] floor.'



