Dog in heart-breaking photo by fallen master's coffin to spend rest of life with Navy SEAL's friend

• Petty Officer Jon Tumilson, 35, killed in major Afghanistan helicopter crash
• Labrador retriever Hawkeye was at emotional service and in tragic photo
• But the Navy SEAL's friend Scott Nichols will now be taking care of dog

The Navy SEAL’s dog who tragically refused to leave his fallen master’s side during an emotional funeral is going to a good home.
Labrador retriever Hawkeye sat by the coffin of his master Petty Officer Jon Tumilson, 35, who was killed in the major U.S. helicopter crash in Afghanistan this month.
Mr Tumilson was remembered by around 1,500 mourners but it was Hawkeye who really captured the public’s emotions in a photo taken by the fallen SEAL’s cousin, Lisa Pembleton.

Concerned members of the public who have seen the heart-wrenching photo will be pleased to hear that there is a happy ending for Hawkeye.
He will be staying with Scott Nichols, who had previously looked after him while Mr Tumilson was away on duty overseas. Family members had followed Hawkeye into the funeral. 

Nikki Virgilio, a friend of Mr Tumilson - known as J.T. - was at the funeral last week and said Hawkeye was a personal pet rather than a military dog.
'I can happily report to you that Hawkeye was willed to one of J.T.'s good friends, the same one that took care of him whenever J.T. was deployed overseas,' she wrote on Facebook.
‘J.T. was going to be a Navy SEAL come hell or high water,’ Mr Nichols said. ‘J.T. was not afraid to die. He was afraid of losing his parents.’
 Mr Tumilson, of San Diego, California, was one of 38 killed on August 6 when a rocket-propelled grenade took out a U.S. Chinook helicopter.
 His funeral was held last Friday in his hometown of Rockford, Iowa, at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock Community School.


 

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