June 12, 2014 - Layka, the U.S. military combat dog on the cover of National Geographic's June issue, parachuted with her handler recently to help her fellow combat dogs. While serving in Afghanistan, Layka was shot four times by the enemy. Despite the injuries, she attacked and subdued the shooter, saving her handler and other members of the team. In surgery to save her life, she lost a front leg, and her handler, Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald, later adopted her. Here, with McDonald, and tandem sky jumper Mike Elliott, Layka took part in testing a parachute harness that could make it easier and safer for dogs to help soldiers reach remote locations.



Read more about the war dogs in National Geographic's June cover story here.



See Layka and Julian's story in this video.



All Veteran Group website

- Layka, the U.S. military combat dog on the cover ofs June issue, parachuted with her handler recently to help her fellow combat dogs. While serving in Afghanistan, Layka was shot four times by the enemy. Despite the injuries, she attacked and subdued the shooter, saving her handler and other members of the team. In surgery to save her life, she lost a front leg, and her handler, Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald, later adopted her. Here, with McDonald, and tandem sky jumper Mike Elliott, Layka took part in testing a parachute harness that could make it easier and safer for dogs to help soldiers reach remote locations.Read more about the war dogs inSee

Stacy Cortes

Hardpoint Technologies, LLC

Fitted Harness on Layka



Some people in the special operations community approached us about making a vest that can be used for everything up to attacking detection, and up to fast roping and free-fall. We've been working on this dog vest for the past three years now. We had already tested the harness and we had heard about Julian and his dog and had spoken to him. He said he would really like this opportunity so we got them up here and went through with the jump.



Mike Elliott

President, All Veteran Group

Jumped In Tandem With Layka and Julian



Once the aircraft came up, the three of us walked out towards the aircraft, and Layka was very, very calm. I was really surprised on how calm she was. We put the equipment on, checked everything numerous times to make sure the harness was fitted properly, to make sure it was fitted on Layka properly, and very comfortable.



I just kind of watched her, stayed, you know, close to her, kept a hand on her, along with the handler just to keep her calm as we climbed to altitude. You have pressure changes, et cetera et cetera, so we were monitoring what the dog was doing and was making sure she was staying as comfortable and as relaxed as possible.



And once this is done we were close to our exit altitude which is around 13,500 feet. She did get a little nervous once the door opened up, but we all do, as well as humans who are about to jump out of an aircraft for the first time. So nothing out of the ordinary. Once we saw that she was a little nervous we just kept hands on her, rubbing her, and saying "It's OK." As we started to move towards the door we didn't try to get her all the way out into the relative wind, so we stayed back from the door somewhat and went through the exit procedures.



Stacy Cortes:



One of the things that went into this vest is making sure that everything the vest is constructed with is actually the same thing that military parachute systems are made with. The main frame of the harness of made out of type eight nylon, with a 4,000lb tensile strength, and then we also have a military-grade mesh to allow the dogs more breathability so they can have airflow into the vest.



Layka I think weighed about 70lbs, so even in free fall with opening shock there's no way she's gonna come through that 4,000lb breaking strength. So I knew she was completely safe. Her handler had said she's a little high-strung and she's young. Everyone's nervous on their first jump but she handled it very well.



It's an honor to work with these guys and the special operations community, some of these dogs have actually saved my husband's life and the lives of our friends so it's just been a really good experience working with them and trying to make a product that can help save them.



