WARRIOR PUPS:TRUE STORIES OF AMERICAS K9 Format: Paperback

Lavishly illustrated with full-color photos throughout, Warrior Pups takes you behind-the-scenes into the lives of the fiercely dedicated military men and women and their civilian supporters who make the US Military Working Dog program the success that it is. It has been estimated that during its six-year career in the field, each Military Working Dog saves the lives of 150 American and coalition soldiers by detecting hidden IEDs and disrupting ambushes.

Emmy-Award-winning broadcast journalist Jeff Kamen and his wife Leslie Stone-Kamen were granted unprecedented access to the closed K9 world of trainers and handlers inside Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, the headquarters of the US Military Working Dog Program, and into the lives of the civilian and military volunteers who foster the baby pups. At any given moment, there are an estimated 700 young dogs in various stages of training at the base. Some are purchased overseas and arrive as canine adolescents. Other warrior pups are born at Lackland. The program is led by canine behaviorist Dr. Stewart H., who everyone at Lackland simply calls "Doc." His apporach to dog training is founded on a deep love and respect for the dogs. The Dog Training School's superb instructors hone the dogs’ innate drives to hunt, fight, and protect.

The dog/handler team goes first into battle ahead of the troops, sniffing out hidden IEDs, booby traps, and ambushes. American K-9 units are so effective that the enemy often targets them first. The only way handlers can summon the necessary courage is to have rock solid faith in the abilities of their highly trained dogs. Warrior Pups captures that courage, faith, and love on every page.

Award-winning journalist Jeff Kamen is the co-author with Robert Kupperman of Final Warning: Averting Disaster in the New Age of Terrorism. His New York Daily News Magazine cover story, “Facing the Terrorists,” provided readers with extraordinary access to the NYPD’s storied Bomb Squad. His news reporting and documentaries on national security, law enforcement, race relations, and politics have been featured on radio TV and in print for more than forty years. Kamen has reported for NPR, NBC News, ABC and CBS Radio, CBC and Mutual News. Jeff's documentary, "Outside the Wire," for the Air Force won the top prize for Pentagon-produced films in 2005. Jeff's articles and commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, Dallas Morning News, LA Times, Newsweek, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, the American Journalism ReviewandPenthouse magazine. Leslie Stone-Kamen, a photojournalist and retired Doctor of Oriental Medicine, is Jeff's partner in life and in Warrior Pups. Her favorite photo in the book captures the moment when the chief dog trainer at Lackland AFB reassured a puppy by crooning to him and rocking him in his arms like a baby. They live in Virginia.