Posted March 05, 2014

Kent Vince (DVM '01) directs Dog Center Europe, the first stop for dogs evacuated from combat zones.

dog in surgery

On the front lines of war zones, military working dogs serve alongside American soldiers, helping protect and save lives. And when those four-legged warriors are injured, a Spartan veterinarian is among those who are prepared to save them.

MSU alumnus Major Kent Vince is the director of Dog Center Europe, a clinic in Germany that is the first stop for dogs evacuated from combat zones throughout Europe, Africa, and Afghanistan. A former MSU ROTC member, Vince earned his bachelor's degree in animal science and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree before he was deployed with the U.S. Army as a board-certified veterinary surgeon.

"Military working dogs are the four-legged soldiers," says Vince. "They are on the front lines, at the tip of the spear, you might say, looking for explosive devices, finding things that could potentially harm our soldiers. When a working dog is injured, we owe it to them to do everything possible to save that dog's life."

See his Spartan Saga.