[ SHOWGSD-L ] Great story about the dogs of war
- From: Bokenkampgsd1@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 12:02:42 EDT
This is not just about GSD's but all the dogs that work to keep our
soldiers and all of us safe.
Molly
=======================================================================
May 11, 2011
NY Times
The Dogs of War: Beloved Comrades in Afghanistan By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON - Marines were on a foot patrol last fall in the Taliban
stronghold of Marja, Afghanistan, when they shot and killed a lethal
threat: a local dog that made the mistake of attacking the Marines'
Labrador retriever.
Capt. Manuel Zepeda, the commander of Company F, Second Battalion, Sixth
Marines, was unapologetic. If the Lab on the patrol had been hurt, the
Marines would have lost their best weapon for detecting roadside bombs -
and would have called for a medevac helicopter, just as they would for a
human. An attack on the Lab was an attack on a fellow warrior.
As Captain Zepeda put it that day, "We consider the dog another Marine."
The classified canine that went on the Navy Seals' raid of Osama bin
Laden's compound last week has generated a wave of interest in military
dogs, which have been used by the United States since at least World War
I. Now, more valued than ever, they are on their own surge into
Afghanistan.
American troops may be starting to come home this summer, but more dogs
are going in. In 2007, the Marines began a pilot program in Afghanistan
with nine bomb-sniffing dogs, a number that has grown to 350 and is
expected to reach nearly 650 by the end of the year. Over all, there are
some 2,700 dogs on active duty in the American military. A decade ago,
before the Sept. 11 attacks, there were 1,800.
"Most of the public isn't aware of what these dogs add to national
security," said Gerry Proctor, a spokesman for training programs at
Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, including the Military Working Dog
School. Dogs are used for protection, pursuit, tracking and search and
rescue, but the military is also increasingly relying on them to sniff
out the homemade bombs that cause the vast majority of American
casualties in Afghanistan. So far, no human or human-made technology can
do better.
Within the military, the breeds of choice are generally the German
shepherd and a Belgian shepherd, or Malinois, but Marines in Afghanistan
rely on pure-bred Labrador retrievers because of the dogs' good noses
and non aggressive, eager-to-please temperaments. Labs now accompany many
Marine foot patrols in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan,
wandering off-leash 100 yards or more in front as bomb detectors. It is
the vital work of an expensively trained canine (the cost to the
American military can be as high as $40,000 per dog), but at the end of
a sweltering day, sometimes a Lab is still a Lab.
Last spring on a patrol in Helmand's Garmsir District, a Lab, Tango, was
leading a small group of Marines on a dirt road leading into a village
when the dog suddenly went down on all fours, wagging his tail - a sign
that he had detected explosives nearby. The patrol froze as a Marine
explosives team investigated. No bomb was found and the patrol
continued, but on the way back the dog, miserable in the 102-degree heat
and like most Labrador retrievers a good swimmer, abandoned his duties
and leaped into an irrigation canal to cool off. But then he could not
climb back up the steep bank. One of the Marines, swearing lustily,
finally jumped into the canal and carried the dog out in his arms.
The bonds that grow in battle between the Labs and their Marine handlers
are already the stuff of heart-tugging war stories. But few have had the
emotional impact of that of Pfc. Colton W. Rusk, a 20-year-old Marine
machine gunner and dog handler who was killed in December by sniper fire
in Sangin, one of the most deadly areas in Helmand. During his
deployment, Private Rusk sent his parents a steady flow of pictures and
news about his beloved bomb dog, Eli, a black Lab. When Private Rusk was
shot, Marine officers told his parents, Eli crawled on top of their son
to try to protect him.
The 3-year-old Eli, the first name of the survivors listed in Private
Rusk's obituary, was retired early from the military and adopted in
February by Private Rusk's parents, Darrell and Kathy Rusk. "He's a big
comfort to us," Kathy Rusk said in a telephone interview from her home
in Orange Grove, Tex. After the dog's retirement ceremony in February at
Lackland Air Force Base, an event that generated enormous news coverage
in Texas, the Rusks brought Eli for the first time into their home. "The
first place he went was Colton's room," Mrs. Rusk said. "He sniffed
around and jumped up on his bed."
So far, 20 Labrador retrievers out of the 350 have been killed in action
since the Marine program began, most in explosions of homemade bombs,
Marine officials said. Within the Special Operations Command, the home
of the dog that went on the Bin Laden mission, some 34 dogs were killed
in the line of duty between 2006 and 2009, said Maj. Wes Ticer, a
spokesman. Like their handlers, dogs that survive go on repeat
deployments, sometimes as many as four. Dogs retire from the military at
the age of 8 or 9.
To an American public weary of nearly 10 years of war, dogs are a way to
relate, as the celebrity status of the still-unknown commando dog
proved. (President Obama is one of the few Americans to have met the
dog, in a closed-door session with the Seal team last week.)
Few understand the appeal of dogs in battle better than Rebecca Frankel,
the deputy managing editor of ForeignPolicy.com. Last week, she posted a
"War Dog" photo essay, with her favorite pictures of dogs jumping out of
helicopters, skydiving from 30,000 feet and relaxing with Marines. The
photo essay went viral, with 6.5 million page views to date - a record
for the site.
"I think people go weak at the knees for these dogs," Ms. Frankel said
in an interview. "I do, too. But their contribution is significant.
These are serious dogs."
============================================================================
POST is Copyrighted 2011. All material remains the property of the original
author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind
are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the
Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its
administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in
any post.
ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY
MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY
FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE
PROSECUTED.
For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org
SUBSCRIPTION:http://showgsd.org/mail.html
NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/
============================================================================
Other related posts:
