Logan, a highly trained and truly unique air-scenting search dog, is in the process of joining the Salvadoran Army, having passed his field trials and medical exams. He proved that he is able to find humans even if submerged in water or buried in debris.  The military of this nation is transitioning to a peacetime force focused on infrastructure improvement and disaster response.  Since LOGAN's trials, the army prepared a major disaster relief effort to flooded areas of Valencia, Spain.  International assistance was not accepted even from neighbor nations in Europe, and the Salvadoran team redeployed deeper into Central America to Costa Rica, where hurricane Rafael had left a wake of destruction.  This operation was the first of its kind by a small Central American nation, and included 300 unarmed paramedics and rescue specialists.  Four K9 teams were among the first responders airlifted to the nation (pictured in these official government tweets are some of the very soldiers earlier presiding at LOGAN's field trials, where he successfully located an unlucky private who had been buried alive on the army base).  LOGAN's $2,800 passage to his new home nation was borrowed from other projects, and he requires lots of expensive, specialized equipment for future operations.  He needs a custom-fitted cooling vest to operate at low altitudes in the tropical heat, and four vehicle-temperature alarms installed on the official vehicles he will operate from.  He also needs a bulletproof/stabproof uniform vest, as he is a national symbol and will have to run searches at crime scenes.  I have run many such dangerous search missions myself, even in the relative safety of the USA.  It is seldom known during the search if a person is simply lost, or a victim of kidnapping or murder. Thus a friendly search dog may home in on and corner a dangerous criminal.  Also needed is a belay-rated rappeling/abseil harness for heliborne insertions and operations on the volcanic cliffs of the region.  LOGAN will sire a new line of air-scenting rescue dogs throughout the region and leave a legacy behind him, even as the Salvadoran military miraculously evolves to peacetime role.        

Click HERE to listen to the worldwide broadcast of LOGAN's field trials and medical examinations.

A little more background, written before LOGAN's intended handler, a highly trained criminologist and personal friend of the former president, was fired. LOGAN and I have since moved to El Salvador:  Since portraying the "mean dog" in Black Belt Magazine last spring, LOGAN is the most famous dog in all of Mexico.  He is just turning three, and has lived most of that time in the northern state of Tamaulipas.  This state is known for trafficking and cartel violence, but also for cowboys and livestock breeders.  There are also a lot of Christians, but years of corrupt governance have left a stain on this region.  Human life is cheap, the lives of animals even more so.  As a missionary, I try to demonstrate that there is a better way to live.  LOGAN draws a crowd everywhere we go.  Sometimes children will give him a "group tummy rub" in the town plaza of Reynosa, the largest of the Mexican border cities.  Occasionally he shows up at a karate tournament, where he is the #1 celebrity!  People who practice the martial arts are amazed that their fellow practitioners in Europe, Japan, Korea, and South America are all reading about Logan and looking at pictures of him taken in the scenic park of their own hometown.  Most of them can barely afford their lessons costing 40 or 50 dollars a month.  The poverty here is pretty severe, and sometimes animals suffer the most.  Dog food is sold in bulk from a bin like beans, and there are always bags of it left behind at the checkout.  Somebody ran out of money and had to leave something behind...often it is the "croqueta" or kibble for Fido.  He'll have to make due on table scraps and bits he scavenges from the trash.  LOGAN is an example of another culture and a higher way.  He is a friend, and a member of the family.  He has jobs to do, and he earns his own food by working for his Uncle Sam.  He knows more than SEVENTY words!  Up to this point, he has always had proper food and medical care, because I have made it a priority.  Nevertheless, a big dog like him (at almost 80 pounds, he is the biggest dog many people have ever seen) is an enormous luxury, simply beyond the reach of most people...and I am poorer than them all!  When I drive down the road, people don't greet me, but yell out "LOGAN!!!" When I show up at church alone, everybody asks where he is.  No one cares how anyone treats people, and there are grisly murders in the news every day.  Likewise, nobody notices if I am nice to a person.  But everyone notices that LOGAN is one-of-a-kind because I have loved him and given him what he needs and deserves.  He has been the best evangelism tool imaginable.  He is also an example for every kid born into poverty, that they can distinguish themselves, be famous, and go around the world if they work hard and are disciplined like LOGAN.  He is also a friend to me as a stranger in a strange land, and the only "person" I have to talk to.  Someone else chose between German, Russian, Czechoslovak, and English as the language to train him in.  English was the choice, convenient for me because I actually speak it.  These three years have been horribly lonely, ministering and scraping by in a region where more families are begun by kidnapping than courtship, and LOGAN has been a tremendous companion through all that.  He is a good friend, and very well behaved.  LOGAN incurs a lot of expenses, with his practice missions to find lost persons, living or dead (this region is known for clandestine graves).  I keep his shots up to date (again, a rarity in the extreme).  He cut his paw running in a muddy pasture once, and had to go to the infirmary.  The environment here is teeming with internal and external parasites.  The measures against those are simple, but they do have a cost and must be administered consistently.  You may not know that Latin America, being prone to earthquakes, has some of the best rescue organizations on the planet.  Teams respond to humanitarian  disasters in all the world, and an air-scenting search dog of the Mexican Army died in the line of duty in February 2023.  Proteo, a German Shepherd like LOGAN, was searching for buried victims of the February earthquake in Turkey.  He was ten years old, past working age, and unaccustomed to the snowy climate.  He worked his little heart out, dying on the job after saving a buried child and locating 14 deceased victims.  LOGAN began to train in earnest at that time for air-scenting search and rescue.  LOGAN is also looking for a suitable "dama" with whom to sire puppies, and would like to donate the pick of his litter to the Mexican Army to replace the beloved Proteo, if he doesn't do the job himself (he IS TRAINED FOR IT)!  Feeding a girlfriend or two is an even bigger responsibility than the upkeep of LOGAN alone.  Would you consider being a supporter of LOGAN, an ambassador of goodwill to Latin America and the world?  Please click the right or left arrows in the picture above to see LOGAN in action, hiding on command, and strutting his stuff!  Visit GospelGunslingers.com to DONATE BITCOIN, or see more about me, Samuel Honnold, and Logan!

*Samuel Honnold has been widely published for the training of Phobos and Tromos, air-scenting search dogs operating with The Refuge Society.  They cleared disaster zones in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, working cases from the Gulf of Mexico coast to near the Canadian border.