When a group of American soldiers serving in the Middle East had a request to rescue a stray dog they took in and adopted from the dangerous city streets near their military base, they knew they couldn’t send just anyone.

They knew it would take one of their own — a former special operations soldier to be exact — to save their beloved canine “Ghost” and bring her to a safe haven in America.

Thanks to an organization called Guardians of Rescue, their risky wish was granted. An elite United States Army veteran operator was called upon to retrieve Ghost in a restricted area (that needed to be cleared with the embassy), a vet that “can’t be named for his own safety.”

According to The Dodo, the vet will go to a specific location mapped out and relayed to him by the active-duty soldiers, i.e. Ghost’s military family.

“[The veteran volunteer] is always in danger being there,” said Robert Misseri, the nonprofit’s founder. “Because if the wrong people found out that he’s an American and he’s bringing a dog back for our U.S. soldiers, that’s a recipe for disaster.”

More on the details of the mission from The Dodo:

Once the ex-soldier extracts the dog, he will stay at a hotel with her until the flight back to the U.S. can be confirmed.

Again, that will be no easy feat.

Dogs can’t fly through London, England.

“So he has to take special routes,” Misseri notes. “He can’t fly certain airlines.”

But once this mission is complete — the ex-soldier is expected to be stateside with Ghost by November 2 — there will be sighs of relief on both sides of the Atlantic.

“This unit could never be the same after having this new companion in their lives if they had to leave him behind,” Misseri says. “They know what would happen to her.”

When Ghost finally gets to America, she’ll be taken care of until one of her original advocates at the base near where she was discovered, Sergeant Christian Cox, returns home from deployment. When he does, they’ll be reunited for good.

For more information on the rescue and the foundation responsible, click here.