One last sniff through a trail of explosive-smelling luggage on Friday and K-9 Beamer retired after more than eight years serving on Gainesville Regional Airport’s security team.
On top of her full-time safety job, the smiling yellow Labrador Retriever became no less than a celebrity as the airport’s ambassador, traveling with handler Jason Berger to schools, conventions and events around the region performing bomb-detection demonstrations.
The dynamic duo handed out Beamer plush toys, trading cards, Beamer poop bags and have the “Beamer Berger” slider sandwich named after them.
Beamer’s retirement ceremony in the general aviation hangar at the airport intentionally dovetailed with the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Speakers made special tributes to Beamer and her namesake, Todd Beamer, one of the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who helped lead a charge to overtake hijackers before the plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Penn.
Community members and airport staff in attendance witnessed Beamer become the first K-9 in recent years to receive a congressional challenge coin as U.S. Representative Kat Cammack presented it along with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol in honor of the K-9’s service.
Because Beamer gets toys as rewards for successful sniff missions, the pet brand KONG donated 100 rubber chew toys for her retirement. Airport staff decorated them with edible metallic marker, writing phrases like “Never Forget” and “Let’s Roll,” which were Todd’s last recorded words and are stitched on Beamer’s K-9 jacket.
After Berger led Beamer through her last sniff, the crowd threw the toys and tennis balls to her before she hung up the jacket.
“We wanted to both acknowledge the somberness of today but also acknowledge how our industry and first responder community has risen up against that somberness,” said airport spokesperson Erin Porter.
The 51-year-old Berger has worked as a security coordinator at the Gainesville airport for 20 years.
He got the idea for an in-house security K-9 after the airport shut down with a bomb threat in 2013. It took over an hour to get K-9s in from other agencies in town, a sacrifice not ideal for a situation where every second is crucial. Plus, Beamer would perform sniffs on unattended baggage nearly every day, Berger said, preventing long delays for travelers that only an in-house K-9 can do.
After former CEO Allan Penksa approved Berger’s plan, the airport secured a 50-50 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation for a K-9 and Beamer came to Gainesville all the way from Colombia in 2018.
Berger said Todd Beamer’s story had always resonated with him, and he reached out to Todd’s widow, Lisa, for permission to name the K-9 in his honor.
“Our family loves dogs and is honored to know that your new bomb sniffing dog in Gainesville will be named Beamer,” Lisa replied. “We hope the training goes well!”
It did. Beamer first went through roughly four months of imprinting, a process where the dog’s nose is conditioned with the scents it needs to detect, be it explosives or drugs. Beamer’s nose is imprinted with 17 different scents.
The instructors at Southern Coast K-9 in New Smyrna Beach deemed Beamer a natural and top of the class. She joined Berger for another six-week stint where the K-9 and handler learned to bond while training.
At home, Berger said Beamer is just another member of the family. She’s laid back and loves ear scratches from his wife and daughters, often sneaking onto the bed to sleep on their legs during the night.
But when duty calls, Beamer is ready to roll.
“When I say ‘let’s roll,’ she knows it’s time to work, and that’s when she starts the sniffing,” Berger said.
Under Beamer’s watch, Berger said she’s helped secure numerous suspicious situations. Anytime a non-airport vehicle came inside the airport, Beamer searched it.
During the ceremony, Berger thanked the operations teams for helping him clean the office on smelly days when Beamer ate something that didn’t quite agree with her stomach. He noted that the team may only have helped because they’re guilty of feeding the K-9 an extra snack.
“I want to thank everybody for believing in Beamer and her abilities to keep the airport safe,” Berger said.
Beamer retired as the first and—for now—last Gainesville airport K-9. Berger said the leadership will invest in other security measures for the moment. He said Beamer has retirement plans to visit Lisa soon.
Until then, Beamer’s new 9 to 5 will be playing with a house full of toys no matter the smell.
—with reporting from Seth Johnson
