Ira Zaslow<\/a>, the only Lehman Brothers employee who did not escape the WTC on 9\/11, \u201chis double \u2018Z\u2019 designation marking his place in the program\u2019s alphabetical memorial lineage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThe lab was raised during his first year by a TSA volunteer foster family in Austin, Texas. With them, \u201che underwent structured behavioral development and early scent work designed to prepare him for national service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe work paid off \u2013 at 1 year old, Zzaslow was transferred to the Department of Defense and selected for the Mine Detection Dog (MDD) course. In June 2007, he graduated alongside the man who would become his lifelong handler, SPC Juan Col\u00f3n-Estrada. \u201cTogether they began a decade of service that would place them on the front lines of some of the most dangerous terrain in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Zzaslow](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tZzaslow with U.S. troops.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHammer Productions<\/p>\n
\n\tZzaslow specialized in locating buried landmines, IEDs, mortar rounds, grenades, and unexploded ordnance. \u201cHis work required extreme precision: upon detecting explosive odor, he would perform a passive indication, freezing in place, allowing engineers to safely mark and neutralize the threat. Over three deployments to Afghanistan, Zzaslow cleared more than 25,000 square meters of hazardous terrain during quality assurance and route clearance missions. He created safe lanes for troop movement and conducted casualty-extraction searches, including clearing a two-meter-wide path after a damaged C-17 aircraft landed in an uncleared area, enabling all passengers to disembark safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tZzaslow served for 10 years, becoming renowned for his \u201ccalm nose\u201d and being \u201csteady, methodical, unwavering under pressure. His accuracy and discipline protected American and allied soldiers daily. By the time of his retirement in November 2014, he was recognized as the longest-tenured and most decorated mine-detection dog of the post-9\/11 era.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tWriter-producer Adam Zaslow at the 9\/11 Memorial in New York City.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHammr Productions<\/p>\n
\n\tWriter-producer Adam Zaslow is the son of Lehman Brothers employee Ira Zaslow. His involvement in the documentary came about he learned a bomb-sniffing dog had been named in honor of his late father. He sold his childhood basketball card collection to help fund the project.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFunding the film independently was challenging. More difficult was confronting my own grief surrounding 9\/11. Visiting the 9\/11 Museum for the first time, with Juan [Zzalow\u2019s trainer], was emotional, but also healing,\u201d Zaslow says. \u201cMy father\u2019s story ended with \u2018victim of 9\/11.\u2019 Learning that the TSA named puppies after victims, and that one carried my father\u2019s name, gave his legacy new meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDirector Robert Ham enlisted in the U.S. military after 9\/11. \u201cI\u2026 trained and was ultimately deployed to Afghanistan as a Combat Videographer and Public Affairs Sergeant with the 4th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Airborne),\u201d he notes. \u201cI carried a camera in one hand and a rifle in the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tDirector Robert Ham (right) with director of photography Seth Naugle.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHammr Productions<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAdam Zaslow reached out with this story that echoed both tragedy and purpose, and somewhere in the world there was a mine-detection dog who carried his family name: Zzaslow K-427,\u201d Ham explains. \u201cHis message cut straight into questions I\u2019d carried for years about service, loss, legacy, and the ways 9\/11 reshaped the world for an entire generation. We decided to partner and tell this intimate story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHam continues, \u201cTo shape the film, I entered Adam\u2019s world as a son carrying the shape of loss; I entered Juan\u2019s world as a handler who entrusted his life to a dog; and, finally, I entered Zzaslow\u2019s world, searching out weapons with a life-saving nose, where the bond between man and animal revealed itself as unbreakable and where Ira\u2019s legacy continues to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tZzaslow at work in the warzone.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHammr Productions<\/p>\n
\n\tSuzanne Johnson served as Zzaslow\u2019s foster parent for the first year of his life.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cZZaslow K-427 isn\u2019t just a documentary,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to a profound human connection. The story holds deep personal meaning for everyone who had the honor of being a part of his life. Each individual who crossed paths with him poured their heart and spirit into nurturing the seeds of greatness within him, helping Zzaslow blossom into the truly exceptional soldier he was destined to become. It\u2019s a shared journey of dedication, love, and the enduring power of connection that shaped a remarkable life.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tRelease plans for the documentary are pending. Watch the trailer for Zzaslow K-457 here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: There are good dogs. There are very good dogs. And then there\u2019s Zzaslow. The black Labrador, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,257333,206,257334,257335,257336],"class_list":["post-588934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ira-zaslow","tag-movies","tag-robert-ham","tag-robert-zaslow","tag-zzaslow-k-427"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}