I have a friend who was in 10th Special Forces Group.
He explained this situation to me in detail.
A retired military service dog watches over his family.
She is not a pet.
A military service dog is a soldier's partner, it's battle buddy.
They're not leaving it behind.
It's getting on the plane with them, and they are leaving together.
They are a unit.
That's why when you see a police car, with a police dog, it's called a K-9 unit.
I'm not saying we didn't leave dogs, but It's likely those dogs hadn't 'graduated' yet.
They were contract dogs, not mil K9. State had kennels full of them staffed by contractors in AFG.
Thank you for the additional information.
It's very sad. When I had down time, I'd go hang out by the LZ at Camp Sullivan and watch the dogs, as I missed mine - GSDs and Mals.