Leadership and giving back go hand in hand—and few embody it like UT alumni Dee and Jimmy Haslam. In my latest On Leadership episode, we discuss their careers, partnership, and how to make a meaningful impact. Watch the full interview here: bit.ly/4A4mm8K

Layka, a Belgian Malinois, took four rounds from an AK-47 fired at point blank range while protecting her US Army Ranger handler in Afghanistan. Even with those devastating wounds, she attacked the shooter, subdued him, and saved Staff Sergeant Julian McDonald along with the rest of the team behind her. That 2013 mission was a direct action special operations raid in which Layka entered a building thought to be empty. It wasn’t. In the darkness, she discovered a man lying motionless in a corner that everyone believed was already dead. She engaged. He was very much alive, and he unleashed six to eight rounds from an AK-47, four of which struck her, shredding her tricep and completely destroying the ball-and-socket joint of her shoulder. She still brought him down. McDonald dragged her out of the building and drew on his training as a physician’s assistant to give her immediate first aid, buying the critical time she needed to reach a field hospital. Surgeons kept her alive but could not save the leg. It was amputated in the first of several operations, one in theater, and another in Germany. Medically retired that August, Layka had a determined advocate in McDonald, who refused to let her spend retirement anywhere but with him. He fought to adopt her despite warnings that a dog shaped by war might struggle in a home full of children. The day she arrived, she settled in front of his one year old son and calmly let the toddler climb all over her. In 2014 Layka appeared on the cover of National Geographic, becoming one of the most recognized war dogs in American history. She spent the rest of her life as a cherished family pet and died at thirteen, given a final tribute by the veterinarians and handlers who had cared for her.

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