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Lucca led more than 400 missions during her career, and no one was ever hurt until the day she herself suffered a severe injury on the battlefield. Chris and Lucca conducted counterinsurgency operations, located numerous improvised explosive devices, and were credited with saving countless lives. Additionally, Chris has served as a keynote speaker for various events both nationally and internationally.Ĭhris and his MWD, Lucca, were featured in Maria Goodavage’s New York Times bestselling book Top Dog. The obstacle courses Mike Ghidoni leads trained dogs through at Specialized K-9 in Cedarville came about after overcoming his own share of obstacles through the years. Chris has provided numerous print, television and radio interviews about MWDs which include Good Morning America, The Today Show, Fox and Friends, LA Times and the BBC. Chris deployed to the middle east multiple times and was instrumental in developing or enhancing MWD courses, polices and orders due to his operational and training experience.Īs a MWD subject matter expert, Chris has been active in community outreach to bring awareness to the service and sacrifice of our MWDs and their handlers. During his 20 year career, Chris served as a MWD handler, trainer, instructor, supervisor and program manager. A majority of his career was dedicated to the Military Working Dog (MWD) Program. Chris Willingham is a retired Master Sergeant who served 20 years in the United States Marine Corps from January 1999 to January 2019.