Photos by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Virginia State Trooper Andy Roberts hugs his German shepherd, Ike, as the K-9 memorial is dedicated in Blacksburg.

A Virginia Tech police dog was the model for the "Ready to Serve" statue dedicated Friday.

BLACKSBURG -- Bandit, Sgt. Boris, Bodi, Iron, Faro and Ingo were shot and killed while pursuing suspects.

Baron was beaten to death by an escaped inmate; Lobo was struck by a vehicle while in pursuit.

The other four -- Zak, Colt, Gunner and Carsen -- were killed in friendly-fire incidents.

They died between 1962 and 2008, but the police dogs killed in the line of duty in Virginia haven't been forgotten.

The Virginia Law Enforcement K-9 Memorial unveiled at a ceremony Friday afternoon outside the Virginia-Maryland Regional School of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech bears all of their names.

"Nobody wants to be on that," Giles County Sheriff Morgan Millirons said.

But his department's Belgian Malinois, Carsen, was the most recent dog to be killed in the line of duty in Virginia, and the only dog from the Roanoke and New River valleys.

A Pearisburg police officer accidentally shot Carsen while several agencies investigated a break-in at a Glen Lyn church last December.

"A lot of people look at them sometimes as a dog or a pet but they're really a member of the agency," Millirons said.

He and many of the dozens of officers from around the state and beyond said they were happy to see a memorial in Virginia.

"We've been handling dogs so long, and they're the first ones that would be willing to give up their lives," said Deputy Mike Jones of the Summit County Sheriff's Office in Ohio, who attended the ceremony along with two other Summit County dog handlers and their animals.

The memorial has long been a dream of John Hoover, a deputy with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office and a master trainer with the Virginia Police Work Dog Association.

Hoover said he visits the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., every year during National Police Week. Next to the names of officers who have been killed in the line of duty, he said, some officers have placed plaques for their police dogs.

He wondered if there was such a memorial for the K-9s.

Hoover found that about 15 states have police dog memorials, mostly on the campuses of veterinary schools. He thought Virginia should have its own.

Five years ago, work began to create the memorial. A committee was formed and a fundraising goal of $55,000 set. A donor who wished to remain anonymous gave more than $40,000, Hoover said.

Blacksburg artist Larry Bechtel, who created the "Officer Down" statue in front of the Roanoke City Police Department, was commissioned to create the sculpture.

Boris, a German shepherd who works with the Virginia Tech Police Department, was his model.

Bechtel told about 200 law enforcement officers, community members, veterinary school employees and students outside the veterinary school that he took many anatomic measurements of Boris.

"Boris didn't like this," he said, invoking a burst of laughter from the crowd.

"Ready to Serve" is a life-sized bronze sculpture of a German shepherd standing with three legs on the ground. The dog's right front leg is slightly raised in salute, something Bechtel said he did at the request of officers. The dog wears a chain and badge around his neck.

Engraved on a walkway in front of the sculpture are the words, "So that you may live, My life is yours."

"Our college is proud to be home to the statue," which not only memorializes the dogs killed but honors those that stand ready to serve every day, said Dr. Gerhardt Schurig, the veterinary school's dean.

Attorney General Bill Mims told the crowd that he hopes the memorial will inspire others around the country.

As their dogs' names were called at Friday's service, the handlers of the 12 dogs killed in duty placed white roses on the granite base on which the sculpture rests.

Retired Virginia State Police Trooper R.H. Coats went first. It was his dog, Baron, who was killed in 1962.

Several officers brought their dogs out of their patrol cars to watch the service.

Most of them sat stoically, their handlers rubbing their ears, until the Virginia Highlands Pipes and Drums Band played taps, causing a few of them to howl.