George HW Bush's Service Dog 'Sully' Comes Face to Face With Man He's Named After

Mar 04, 2019 by apost team

Through his final six months of life, George HW Bush was attended by a loyal companion, a yellow labrador service dog named Sully, who’d been specially trained by America’s VetDogs to assist the former president with tasks as small as retrieving the telephone and as vital as going for help, in an emergency.

Most Americans, though, only became aware of Sully after pictures of his final vigil beside Bush were splashed across the internet, showing the grieving service dog as he lay beside his master's closed casket.

“That photo will forever memorialize their relationship,” CEO of America’s VetDogs, John Miller, told CBS News. “I’m getting chills right now even thinking about it.”, he added.

The organization named Sully after Captain Chesley Sullenberger, a former airline pilot famous for landing a damaged passenger jet on the Hudson River, saving the lives of every passenger and crew member on board the plane.

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The Bush family attempted to set up a meeting with Captain Sully, while Bush was still alive so that the pilot could meet his service dog namesake. They simply never managed to.

However, the Today Show recently brought the two Sullys together, for the first time. Captain Sully posted a photo to Instagram that captured their meeting (and the yellow labrador socks that he wore, especially for the occasion), along with this caption:

“It was an honor to meet my namesake ‘Sully’ on the @todayshow this morning. Thank you, @jennabhager for sharing the impact Sully has had on your family. I know he will have a lasting impact on many more veterans during his service at Walter Reed.”

Because, as mentioned on the show, Sully’s next assignment will take him to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Sully’s trainer, Valerie Cramer, noted it was very important to Bush that Sully would continue to serve veterans, after his passing.

“So he chose that Sully wouldn’t work for one individual person, but that he would serve many veterans,” Cramer, told the Today Show,“ and the hospital setting is the perfect environment for that.”

Captain Sully further discussed how moved he was by those photos of the service dog at Bush's funeral, saying,

“What a vigil he was holding. [...] That was the iconic image for me of the whole service.”

What do you think about these two Sullys finally meeting? How about canine Sully's next assignment? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!