Dpg Story

[SuperScout]

First lady Laura Bush's guests at her husband's annual address to Congress certainly were diverse. One, in fact, wasn't even human. Rex, a 5-year-old German shepherd, fit in with the other Iraq war veterans who were guests of Republicans and Democrats.

Rex sniffed out bombs in Iraq. He's been the subject of congressional legislation. He's famous, and Wednesday night he became one of Mrs. Bush's guests at the State of the Union speech. How Rex landed such a coveted seat ? actually a spot in the aisle labeled "Rex" on the official seating chart ? is quite a tale.

His owner, Air Force Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana, awoke in a military hospital last summer badly injured by a bomb in Iraq and crying for her bomb-sniffing dog. Someone told her Rex was dead. Later, Dana found out that wasn't true. But it would take an act of Congress before she could take him home to Pennsylvania.

The Air Force said it had spent $18,000 training Rex and that, by statute, he needed to finish the remaining five years of his useful life before he could be adopted. Dana's congressman, Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., helped abolish that policy in an end-of-year defense bill, the White House said.

No less interesting were the other guests of Republicans and Democrats, ranging from parents of fallen soldiers to the mayor of Washington to survivors and rescue personnel from Hurricane Katrina.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., hosted Cindy Sheehan, whose vigil for her 24-year-old soldier son killed in Iraq, Casey, reinvigorated the anti-war movement. But Sheehan was arrested and removed from the House gallery before Bush began speaking. She was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor.

Also in Mrs. Bush's box were the family of Marine Staff Sgt. Dan Clay, 27, who was killed Dec. 1 in Fallujah.