COMBAT BROTHERS

Honoring a soldier’s best friend

STORY BY FELICIA FRAZAR

Retired Navy Senior Chief Michael Toussaint wears a Silver Star on his arm. It’s one earned in combat — but it’s not his.

It was awarded to his K9 partner Remco, who died on July 9, 2009, protecting Toussaint and their team.

Pointing to the tattoo on his forearm of Remco, a Belgian Malinois, and a Silver Star, “that’s only on there because of him. That’s his Silver Star,” he said.

Toussaint was a dog handler for most of his military career. He was trained and given the opportunity to work with Navy SEALs, although that’s not where he started.

The Guadalupe County resident joined the Navy in 1993 after attempting to enlist in the Marines. Having not completed his high school education, the Marine Corps wouldn’t take him. Toussaint earned a high enough score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, and the Navy accepted him.

“I needed to join the military — to do something more positive in my life,” he said. “I later got my education.”

He spent the first four years on a ship, after which he made the transition to special operations dog handler.

Having a fondness for dogs growing up, Toussaint saw the opportunity to become a canine handler and took it.

“I was the guy walking down the street when I was my kids’ age, bringing strays home,” he said. “I always had a connection with dogs. It just made sense.”

His first assigned K9 partner, Ducky, was one of Toussaint’s most memorable, he said.

Toussaint met Ducky in Guam and learned he had his work cut out for him.

“They took me to the kennel, walked me to my dog and he was just staring at the wall. Like, completely out of it,” he said. “Found out the kennel attendant before abused him, he decertified him and had him on medications, like antidepressants.”

Over time, the two formed a bond and they both learned from each other, making each other better, Toussaint said.

“The best thing happened to me was getting that dog first, because it was a learning opportunity and he was teaching me,” he said.

In the years after that, Toussaint worked and trained more than 100 dogs. He became a kennel master and supervised a dog training squadron. He was then given the opportunity to train with the SEALs.

“They were seeking out experienced dog handlers, primarily seeking out someone who could run their kennel,” he said. “I was already a kennel master, but the trick was I had to make it through the screening — physical, mental, psychological.”

Fate brought Toussaint and Remco together. As Toussaint began Special Operations Sailor School with another canine, the dog washed out in the first three days, Toussaint said.

Remco was picked out, purchased and sent from Europe to California at the same time and the two began training together.

The pair wasn’t together long before they were deployed to Afghanistan in May 2009.

“That was his first time out there, that was my first time with him out there,” Toussaint said. “It was like we were both learning together out there and he was coming along good.”

Unfortunately, their time together was short lived. Just two months later, the two along with the Naval Special Warfare Research and Development Group they were assigned to was called out on a special mission — retrieve Beaudry Robert “Bowe” Bergdahl.

A little more than a week after Bergdahl walked off post, the post’s commanders received information on his potential location. After one scrapped mission, another was planned.

“It wasn’t ideal planning,” Toussaint said. “Hostage rescue you wouldn’t take as many precautions because there was only one mission, to get whoever it was that was being held hostage back. That is the preface to which we went out. We knew we had an American to get back. It was last minute, we knew where he was at and we went to go get him and we just missed him.”

Toussaint and Remco train on fast rope for helicopters. Military working dogs must learn these skills alongside their partner in order to reach peak performance in the field.

Before the helicopters dropped the team on the ground, they were in a firefight, Toussaint said.

“It was intense and chaotic,” he said. “There was a lot of bombs going off, automatic machine guns, rocket propelled grenades.”

After seeing a pair of male figures ahead of them, Toussaint sent Remco out to flush them out just as they were preparing to fight.

“They waited until they had the best chance, but Remco messed up that plan and took that fire off of us,” he said. “Remco was the only thing that made it to where it was only one of us carried off there.”

Toussaint said everything happened quickly, but it felt like slow motion as the two men were shooting automatic weapons at the team and throwing grenades.

“My team leader was yelling he got shot, and he was screaming in pain,” he said. “As we were approaching, I saw Remco getting close, about to go in for a bite and I saw him get shot. This was all happening as what felt like slow motion.”

Toussaint kept moving forward, to end the threat.

“It was indescribable the fury I had that they had just shot my buddy, they just shot my dog and now they’re trying to get me,” he said.

Before the helicopters arrived, members of their team began working on their team leader, and Toussaint turned his attention to Remco, as other team members continued to engage.

They were quickly loaded onto helicopters and taken to the newest military medical facility for treatment.

Toussaint watched as the medical staff worked to save his partner, but in the end, he didn’t make it.

“Remco was the only we lost on that mission,” he said. “There were claims that no one got injured because of Bergdahl’s actions. That’s b*******.”

Toussaint said Remco wasn’t just a dog. He was a warrior.

“It mattered more to us to make sure we never let our brothers down than anything else,” Toussaint said. “And that drove me and everyone out there, and it definitely drove the dogs. They always wanted to please their dads and please their brothers, and they proved that time and time again.”

Remco and Toussaint were awarded the Silver Star for their actions.

“Remco was the first dog in Afghanistan to receive a Silver Star,” Toussaint said.

The senior chief said he wasn’t in it for the awards or the recognition.

Senior Chief Michael Toussaint works with his K9 partner, Remco, on bite work. Protection trained dogs begin learning these skills as early as 6-8 weeks after being born so that by the time they are in the field, they have the confidence to work as a partner with their human companion.

He enjoys working with the canines.

“The reward was working with the dogs,” he said. “You had to be in it for the right reasons or you would never make it as a dog handler. It’s a thankless job.”

After Remco’s death, Toussaint continued to work with canines.

“I worked a couple of other dogs in the ‘theater’ until September and I got injured on an operation,” he said.

Toussaint eventually retired after 21 1/2 years of service. After returning home, he began working at a San Antonio area police department, where he stayed until January 2020.

Toussaint now serves as the director of operations for Bulletproof Dog Training out of San Antonio and Cincinnati, Ohio.