News & Blog

Posthumous Dickin Medal Awarded

Posted on Tue, 29 April 2014 by Phil Mussell - General News, Medal News

The PDSA's Dickin Medal - the award popularly known as the "Animal VC" is to be awarded posthumously to Sasha a four year old Labrador, trained to detect explosives, who was killed, along with her handler l/Cpl Kenneth Rowe in a Taliban attack in 2008. Sasha was attached to the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment in the Kandahar region and is credited with saving dozens of lives with 15 confirmed finds of IEDs, mortars and other weaponry. The award is the 65th of the Dickin Medal since its inception in 1943.