Farewall, K-9!

AUGUSTA, GA (PR) - In 2012, K-9 Max was donated to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office as a fully trained explosive K-9 through a government program and K-2 Solutions, Inc.  As it became time to retire K-9 Max, his history was researched in an effort to possibly return him to his original handler.  It was learned that Marine Corporal Paul Robbins joined the Marine Corps Reserves in 2009 as a heavy machine gunner.

 

The unit he was with was getting deployed in 2011 to Afghanistan. While training at Camp Pendleton, CA before heading over, he was told he was going to be crossed trained as a dog handler for an IED Detection Dog.  He flew out to Southern Pines, NC and trained with K2 solutions for 5 weeks and was teamed up with K-9 Max.  Paul has described K-9 Max as an amazing worker and they worked well together.  

Paul felt that no matter what happened, K-9 Max would not let anything happen to him or the guys he was deploying with.  They then flew back to Camp Pendleton where they continued to train with one another until deployment.  They were deployed to Southern Helmand Afghanistan where Paul and Max worked countless hours with MAP 3 walking around the desert making sure it was secure for other platoons to work in.  

They were there until December 23, 2011, which is when they got on a plane to travel home.  They spent a couple days in travel together and once back in the states Paul had a couple minutes with Max to say goodbye, then he had to hand K-9 Max over to the trainers of K2 and get on a bus to head back to base.  Paul didn't think he was ever going to see K-9 Max again.  

In 2012, Sergeant John Gray of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit traveled to K-2 Solutions, Inc. and Max was donated to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and assigned as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal K-9 to Sergeant John Gray.  

Max has worked well for the RCSO over the past two years, had conducted numerous searches for weapons and cleared buildings from bomb threats.  Additionally, Max has been assigned to work the past two Masters Tournaments at the Augusta National helping to ensure the safety of patrons from all over the world.

As it became time for K-9 Max to retire, the aforementioned information was researched and Marine Corporal Robbins was contacted to see if he would like to have K-9 Max returned to him, which he was ecstatic.  Marine Corporal Robbins is now a Police Officer in the Patrol Division of the Lowell Massachusetts Police Department.  

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office through the use of donated funds has arranged to fly Officer Robbins to Augusta to pick up K-9 Max as well as the flight home.  

K-9 Max was officially handed over to Officer Robbins at the Foundation Club by Lieutenant Lewis Blanchard and Sergeant John Gray on behalf of Sheriff Roundtree.