This Dog Is Loyal - Emotional Dog "Cries" At Master's Funeral

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  It wasn't easy coming up with a headline for this story. Infact, it was harder than me to find a headline to this emotional story than it was hard for Fernando Torres to come by goes at Chelsea.(laughing**).. Anyway, this story of this Labrador Retriever at his master's funeral is more than sad.
This might be old news to some, but i decided to blog about it anyway.

Petty Officer Jon Tumilson, 35, killed in the major U.S. helicopter crash in Afghanistan this month, was remembered by around 1,500 mourners.

But it was his Labrador retriever Hawkeye that really captured the public’s emotions in the photo taken by Mr Tumilson’s cousin, Lisa Pembleton.

Fallen Hero, Mr. Tumilson

Mr Tumilson, of San Diego, California, was one of 38 killed on August 6 when a rocket-propelled grenade took out a U.S. Chinook helicopter.

His funeral was held on Friday in his hometown of Rockford, Iowa, at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock Community School.

Ms Pembleton said: ‘I felt compelled to take one photo to share with family members that couldn't make it or couldn't see what I could from the aisle.'To say that he was an amazing man doesn't do him justice. The loss of Jon to his family, military family and friends is immeasurable.'

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO HAWKEYE?

Nikki Virgilio, a friend of Mr Tumilson (known as J.T.) who was at the funeral, said Hawkeye was a personal pet rather than a military dog.

'I can happily report to you that Hawkeye was willed to one of J.T.'s good friends, the same one that took care of him whenever J.T. was deployed overseas,' she wrote on Facebook.

This close friend was revealed by the Des Moines Register to be Scott Nichols.

Mr Tumilson's friend Nikki Virgilio wrote on Facebook that Hawkeye's new owner had previously taken care of the dog while his owner was delployed abroad.

 

During the service, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert Bradshaw told Mr Tumilson's parents that they helped raise an ‘outstanding man - a hero’.

Loyal Till The End... HawkEye pictured lying beside his master's coffin at funeral

Family, friends and servicemen, along with Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, packed the school's gymnasium.

‘If J.T. had known he was going to be shot down when going to the aid of others, he would have went anyway,’ friend and soldier Boe Nankivel said.

Mr Tumilson's sister, Kristie Pohlman, said he always dreamed of joining the military's elite special forces unit.

‘Your dreams were big and seemed impossible to nearly everyone on the outside,’ she said. ‘I always knew you'd somehow do what you wanted.’

Family members followed Hawkeye into the service. Mr Tumilson is survived by two sisters and his parents, George and Kathleen.‘If J.T. had known he was going to be shot down when going to the aid of others, he would have went anyway,’ friend and soldier Boe Nankivel said.

Packed: Thousands turnup for his funeral in hishometown Rockford, Iowa, at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock Community School

Mr Tumilson's sister, Kristie Pohlman, said he always dreamed of joining the military's elite special forces unit.

Mr Tumilson, who joined the Navy in 1995, was known to friends as J.T.

‘Your dreams were big and seemed impossible to nearly everyone on the outside,’ she said. ‘I always knew you'd somehow do what you wanted.’

Family members followed Hawkeye into the service. Mr Tumilson is survived by two sisters and his parents, George and Kathleen.

Watch The Emotional Video Here: