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For one thing, this sounds like a work of fiction. Shelters don't hold dogs for owners who have deployed and await phone calls from commanders to tell them if the dog should be put up for adoption. If a dog is relinquished to the shelter, it's up for adoption, period.

For another, I do dog rescue, and I live near a military base. I am less touched than you by the people who adopt dogs, enjoy their love and attention, and do so little planning for their care and well-being that they ditch them at a shelter or give them to the first comer on Craigslist. This is supposedly a Labrador, and there are rescues especially for them if (as is unlikely) the owner was actually, after a diligent search, unable to find someone qualified to take, and wanting a well-behaved, well-adjusted, housebroken purebred. It would be a cold day in hell before my dogs ever spend another day in a shelter, as I've made plans for them should something happen to me, and I'm not military.