The Veteran Internet Journal - July 25, 2011

Peter Worthington, founding editor of the Sun and Sun newspaper chain, served as a lieutenant platoon commander in , in DOG Company, 1st and 3rd Battalions, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He is a lifelong dog lover and for many years a succession of Jack Russell terriers were ranking members of his family. Worthington also is a military analyst who has covered many wars as a reporter, including several in Africa and the Middle East, as well as Vietnam and Afghanistan (the latter at age 77). Dogs Make good soldiers, jump in chutes, rappel, wear hi-tech equipment in battle

By Peter Worthington

According to reports, the only member of the super-secret SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden whose identity has been revealed is Cairo, the war dog who accompanied the raiders. We don't know much about these dogs, but apparently the U.S. has about 2,800 of them deployed around the world -- 600 of them in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they are regarded as full members of the military. Usually these war dogs are German shepherds, but Cairo is a Belgian Malinois, and an elite member of Navy SEALs. The Malinois is smaller, more compact than a shepherd, weighing perhaps 70 pounds, and is intelligent, brave, loyal, even- tempered but ferocious when necessary and, like border collies, loves his job. Dogs have long been used in war. And just as soldiering has evolved and become more technical over the years, so has the use of dogs. It the Middle Ages, dogs were used in battle - ferocious mastiff-type dogs, unleashed at the enemy and must have been unnerving and frightening. In WWI they were used mostly to carry messages at the front. In WWII they were mostly sentry dogs. In the Korean war they were used as scout dogs - out with patrols where their keen scent (maybe 40 times more acute than in humans) alerted patrols to the presence of the Chinese.

Now they do tandem parachuting with their handler, and are rappelled from helicopters. Labradors are also recruited (conscripted?). In general these "war dogs" have a stimulating life and bond with soldiers who work with them through a permanent handler.

The dogs are fitter than humans, and move much faster. They are trained in different functions - to detect explosives and/or to locate and warn of an alien human presence. They can be equipped with video cameras to enter danger zones and enable handlers to see what's ahead. Cairo, the SEAL dog in the raid on Osama bin Laden, was wearing super-strong, flexible body armour with high-tech equipment designed by Jim and Glori Slater's firm - K9 Storm Inc.

Slater, a former dog-handler for the Winnipeg police, felt if cops wore protective body armour in dicey situations, so should their dogs. He outfitted his own dog, and then found other handlers were interested. He and his wife designed the flexible dog body armour (fitted with dog goggles for night vision), and their product is now available to police in a dozen countries. The war-dog's lightweight armoured vests have built in transmitters and receivers, drainage for amphibious assaults, attachments for parachuting and rappelling, and all the bells and whistles to make them more effective.

On a personal level, I remember in the Korean war we experimented with dogs on patrols in the Imjin valley. It was 1952. I was a platoon commander and one day was told we were "borrowing" a dog and his handler from U.S. army, for a patrol into the no-man's-land valley. We were curious, albeit skeptical. The seven or eight guys in the patrol were introduced to the German shepherd which was friendly, even playful off-duty. Since Chinese soldiers had a different diet, they also had a different body scent which the dog could detect and would alert us. Our orders were that if we got into bad trouble, we were to shoot the dog rather than let it fall into enemy hands, where it could be re-trained to detect us. This didn't sit well with our guys. Nobody said much, but individually we all agreed that no matter what happened, we were not going to kill the dog. It would be like killing one of our own. Fortunately, the patrol went without incident. The morale effect on our guys was all positive, and the dog clearly enjoyed the hunt. Dogs and soldiers are natural allies, and work well together. Canadian troops on UN duty in the Balkans found that often stray dogs would adopt them. Isolated observation posts (OPs) would adopt a dog that would serve as a sort of sentry and bark a warning if strangers approached. When rotated back home, it bothered many soldiers that they had to leave the dog behind. Curiously, dog handlers, be they with the military or local police, get the most from their dogs through firm affection and training. Off duty, a war-dog is much like a family dog. In some ways it seems contradictory that dog training hinges on trust, affection and rapport, while some military training seems designed to break down a recruit's personality, and then rebuild it into an aggressive persona. Regardless, the K9 Corps can be a vital component of irregular, or unconventional wars that increasingly look to be the future role of our and our allies military.