Craig and Fred: A Marine, a stray dog, and how they rescued each other. Sgt. Craig Grossi knew that if he were caught with a stray dog back on camp, the dog would be put down. But the Marine knew he couldn’t leave the pup behind.
Grossi was deployed to a remote region of Afghanistan, and in 2010, he was in the middle of his eight-years with the Marine Corps. Grossi provided intelligence work for the military and found a stray dog in the area while walking the grounds.
Grossi knew the strict rules about having four-legged friends on camp, but there was something about this dog that caught his attention. He approached the lone dog with a piece of beef jerky, and the dog’s tail began to wag. The Marine named the dog “Fred” after mishearing someone say he looked like a new “friend.”
The friendly dog followed Grossi back to camp and Fred accompanied Grossi on covert night patrols. Never once would he bark or make any noise. Fred was a good obedient boy. However, due to the “no dogs” policy, Grossi’s comrades didn’t want Fred in the compound. Despite some of the other Marine’s disapproval, he wasn’t going to abandon Fred.
