The four-legged warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan — the military's guard and bomb-sniffing dogs — won't be forgotten this Thanksgiving Day thanks to teachers from Paterson's Eastside High School, a 13-year-old Union County boy and some veterans in Totowa.

TARIQ ZEHAWI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Peter Farina, left, Valentine Cholminski and Tony Sigismondi making care packages at the American Legion Post 227.

"Dog biscuits! This is a first!" said Tony Sigismondi as he and fellow veterans from American Legion Post 227 in Totowa prepared to ship the biscuits and other dog treats and supplies overseas. "It was very unusual. Nobody ever thinks of the dogs, it's always the humans."

Seven hundred military dogs currently are serving side-by-side with American soldiers in the Middle East, said Ron Aiello, president of the U.S. War Dogs Association, based in Burlington.

In Iraq, the dogs are stationed at checkpoints and border crossings to sniff out explosives and drugs. Their duties have been expanded to include leading patrols and searching buildings for booby traps. In Afghanistan, the dogs also are used in mine-clearing operations.

U.S. WAR DOGS ASSOCIATION

U.S. soldier Jason Phillips, with Duco, a military war dog, on patrol in Afghanistan.

"A lot of people still don't know dogs are used in the military," said Aiello, 66, who served as a Marine dog handler in Vietnam.

The decision to send care packages to military dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq was the brainchild of Christopher Hamlett, a shy 13-year-old from Mountainside whose mother, Michelle, is a history teacher at Eastside High School in Paterson.

Christopher said he was inspired by stories his mother told him about his grandfather, Stanley Hamlett, who was a military policeman and dog handler in Vietnam.

For the past three years, students at Eastside have been sending care packages to soldiers in the Middle East. Christopher wanted to get involved as part of a social studies project. If soldiers welcomed care packages from home, he reasoned, surely military dogs would, too.

"He was so touched by these dogs," Michelle Hamlett said. "The thought of dogs, basically, being trained to lose their lives broke his heart."

Christopher talked to veterans, and distributed about 1,000 fliers throughout Mountainside and Eastside High. The students and residents responded with donations.

"It got to the point where I had car loads — nine boxes — that I was taking to Eastside," Michelle Hamlett said.

"It's the right thing to do," Christopher, an eighth-grade student at Mountainside's Deerfield School, said of the project.

There was one problem. Eastside could not afford the postage.

"It would be way too expensive for us," Michelle Hamlett said.

Gloria Van Houten, an Eastside teacher who helped direct the project, turned to Post 227, and the veterans came through.

"It [postage] cost about $40 a box," Sigismondi said. He said the post collected money at fund-raising events to cover the cost of sending the boxes to the war zones.

In addition to $500 worth of dog biscuits and dog treats, Sigismondi, 79, a Korean War veteran, said his post also sent items traditionally requested by troops, such as toiletries.

The canine packages, which included flea and tick collars, squeaky toys, dog treats and puppy paw wipes, were sent last week with a goal of getting them to the war zones in time for Thanksgiving.

Aiello, of the U.S. War Dogs Association, served with the Marines' first scout-dog platoon in 1966 in Vietnam, where eventually as many as 5,000 dogs were deployed for scout, guard and tracking duty.

"Our job was to lead patrols, day and night," Aiello said. His dog, Stormy, a German shepherd, used the smell in the air to detect danger.

"We worked with the wind," Aiello said. "If there was an ambush ahead or a sniper in a tree, or a booby trap down a trail, Stormy would stop and kneel, and I would say, 'What do you see girl?' And I would report a possible enemy ambush at 11 o'clock in that tree line."

A dog's nose is "10 times stronger than a human's," Aiello said. "An analogy is that we smell spaghetti. A dog can smell the sauce, the tomatoes, the pepper, the oregano."

When U.S. troops pulled out of Vietnam, some of the dogs were turned over to the South Vietnamese Army. Others were euthanized.

"At the end of the war, there were 3,000 dogs left," Aiello said. "We gave 1,700 to the South Vietnam military; the rest were euthanized. We didn't like that."

Aiello said he doesn't know what happened to Stormy.

After Vietnam, the war dog program was disbanded, only to be started again after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military dogs are no longer euthanized when their tours are done. They are retired or put up for adoption, Aiello said.

The most common breed deployed to the Middle East is the Belgian shepherd, also known as Malinois, Aiello said. Most are trained at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Aiello said it is not unusual for dog handlers stationed in remote parts of Afghanistan to ask for basic items such as feeding bowls, dog shampoo and rope chews. His association also sends leashes and dog harnesses, equipment the handlers cannot readily purchase in a war zone.

"We try to give them a little bit of home," Aiello said. "It keeps their morale up."

E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com

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K-9 PTSD? Some vets say dogs stressed by war, too

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Remember Military Working Dogs on Memorial Day

Steve Dale on 05.31.10 at 2:48 PM  

Those who stand up for our nation in time of war, putting themselves in harm's way, are heroes. We honor the men and women of the U.S. Military this Memorial Day. And there's one more group that deserves recognition: the dogs of the U.S. military.

"No one knows how many lives have been saved (by military working dogs) but many thousands, hundreds of thousands since World War II," says John Burnam, author of "A Soldier's Best Friend." Today, military working dogs deployed across the U.S. and overseas search for explosives and land mines, search for bad guys, and serve as guard dogs. They protect U.S. military equipment from theft.

Ron Aiello, president of the non-profit U.S. War Dog Association, estimates that American military working dogs conservatively saved over 10,000 lives in Vietnam, and that number has likely doubled or tripled in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Aiello was himself in Vietnam when his partner, a German Shepherd named Stormy, alerted him to impending danger.

Ron Aiello and Stormy

Aiello heeded the warning and moments later, a sniper opened fire, just missing him. "My dog saved my life more than once, and most handlers say the same thing," Aiello says.

Burnam also served in Vietnam. His dog was a German Shepherd named Clipper. "One time, we were leading a patrol in an area we had previous combat experience in," he says. "This was an open space with rows of rubber trees. We spread out in a wide formation.

Then all the sudden a guy to my right gets hit and badly hurt. There were explosives with trip wires booby-trapped all around. We had nowhere to go but forward; it was our only choice. Clipper guided us through this area and past at least five booby traps. He save my life and others on that day."

After partnering with Clipper for about a year, Burnam returned home in 1968. The Department of Defense classifies military working dogs as equipment. Lots of equipment was left behind in Vietnam to be used by the South Vietnamese military instead of spending money to bring it back, including the dogs. While some dogs did work for the South Vietnamese military, most were euthanized.

"I don't really know what happened to Clipper, but I suspect he was euthanized also," Burnam says.

Today, dogs working for the military are supposed to be retired to civilian life following their service to our country. "It's the way it should be," Burnam adds. "Truly, ever since World War II, these dogs have served America, and our soldiers."

Canine service to our country began during World War I. Although there was no official program back then, dogs were used by the military. The most famous was a Bull Terrier named Stubby, who repeatedly returned to the front, even after suffering from exposure to gas and wounds from shrapnel.

Stubby, a Bull Terrier and most decorated canine war hero ever. A Bull Terrier? Sad and stupid really, Bull Terriers are now banned in some cities

In 1921, Gen. John J. Pershing awarded a gold medal to "Sgt. Stubby." The same year, the dog visited the White House to meet President Warren Harding and again in 1924 to meet President Calvin Coolidge. Sgt. Stubby died in 1926 and his remains are preserved at the Smithsonian Institution.

America's military officially began its working dog program in World War II, and dogs have served our nation in every war (or military action) since. Today, more dogs are used for more jobs than ever before.

"Definitely, our dependency on war dogs has increased," Aiello says.

"The relationship soldiers have with their dogs is a difficult one to describe," adds Burnam. "We really do depend on one another. The soldiers know it and the dogs know it."

While many agree that America's soldiers don't receive the recognition they deserve, military working dogs receive none. Burnam and Aiello are setting out to change that.

Burnam and others have persuaded the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to officially allow for the construction of a Military Working Dog Teams National Monument. No government money has been allotted for the project, but Burnam has been authorized to conduct a fund-raising campaign.

"This is right - to give closure to soldiers still alive today who lost their dogs on the battlefield, or the soldiers in Vietnam whose dogs did not come back," says Aiello. "And today dogs are saving lives at this moment. We need to honor all our military; it's overdue." To that end, Aiello is hoping to work with the U.S. Department of Defense to find a way to offer military dogs some recognition for their service. The DOD maintains only people can receive medals, but Aiello says military dogs (and their handlers) deserve some special acknowledgment of their own.

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Bomb-sniffing dogs are soldiers' best friends

In Afghanistan, where roadside bombs are the leading cause of casualties, a small band of military working dogs — Belgian Malinois, German shepherds and Labradors — has joined patrols in the south.

July 24, 2010|By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Kuhak, Afghanistan — The military considers them just another piece of equipment; they even have service numbers tattooed inside their ears.

Soldiers often treat them as pets, playing with them and feeding them the junk food common on the remote bases of Afghanistan.

To their handlers, bomb-sniffing dogs are more like battle buddies.

"I'd trust Urmel over most people," Army Sgt. Tait Terzo said of his 4-year-old Belgian Malinois (service number: L-424).

At the same time, he said, if a bomb is lethal, better it kills a dog than a human.

"I hate to say it, but I'd rather lose a dog than a person, as much as it would hurt to lose Urmel," Terzo said.

For the last year, military working dogs — Belgian Malinois, German shepherds and Labradors — have been joining patrols in southern Afghanistan. Their handlers say the dogs have detected homemade bombs, explosives, bomb-making factories, weapons and ammunition stockpiles.

The dogs are often the first line of defense for ground troops. Homemade roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, are the leading killer of U.S. forces here, accounting for 56% of combat deaths this year.

A few soldiers are skeptical about how well the dogs detect expertly hidden bombs, but most say they feel safer when the animals lead foot patrols.

"These dogs are saving lives," said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Wood, program manager for the working dog kennel at Kandahar air field, where no dogs or handlers have been killed despite the ubiquitous roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan. "Every bomb they find is one that won't kill coalition forces."

Urmel has sniffed out at least 20 bombs or explosive caches over the last year. Ted, a 6-year-old chocolate Lab, has detected nearly 2,000 pounds of explosives.

On June 5, Urmel and Terzo survived their first explosion when a roadside bomb detonated just after they passed by, slamming them to the ground but causing no serious injuries. The bomb, hidden next to cow manure near a pomegranate orchard west of Kandahar, was planted too far off the dirt path for Urmel to detect it, Terzo said.

In November, Ted and his handler, Army Spc. Robert Sylvia, were near a homemade bomb in Kandahar city when it exploded. Ted wasn't hurt, but Sylvia sustained a concussion.

In June, Ted sniffed out 30 pounds of homemade explosives hidden in a haystack in the Arghandab Valley, enough to make several bombs.

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Military dogs follow their noses

By Jennifer Grogan

Publication: The Day

www.theday.com

Groton - Molly smelled the contraband in the building at the Naval Submarine Base. Her tail started to wag.

As Master at Arms Second Class Bryan Jones pointed along the wall, Molly sniffed. She began to zigzag back and forth, closing in on the scent until she had pinpointed it.

The 10-year-old springer spaniel sat down in front of a window ledge where a ballcap hid two metal tins, planted there for this recent training exercise. Jones tossed Molly a red dog toy, her favorite reward.

Molly is one of 10 dogs in Groton who detect drugs and explosives and patrol the grounds at the base as part of the Military Working Dogs program. The Defense Department has about 2,000 working dogs at major installations across the country and overseas.

In Groton, the dogs inspect buildings, submarines and anywhere else needed. They check vehicles entering the base and stand by the gate as a visual deterrent to any would-be troublemaker. They can be called on for Secret Service missions, such as presidential or vice presidential visits to the Northeast. Some deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan.

When Molly arrived at the base in November, some people said she was too old and had lost too many of her detection skills after not being used enough at another base. Molly was often guilty of "false responding," sitting down to indicate there were drugs or explosives where there were none. She did not follow all the obedience commands.

Molly was paired with Jones, one of seven handlers in Groton. The trick, Jones said, was for him to act goofy so Molly would have fun and change her behavior quickly.

"A lot of people thought she was done, because of her age and everything," Jones said. "I took it as a challenge, and I wanted to prove them wrong. That's what we're doing now."

Earlier this month, a Navy assessment team reviewed the working dogs at the Groton kennel. Molly passed. She also successfully searched a barracks building with the base commanding officer, Capt. Marc W. Denno, watching.

Molly's tale, Denno said, "almost sounds like the plot of a novel or movie."

"It has those classic plot twists about age, ability, support and ultimately redemption," he said. "And of course, in Molly's case, she's redeemed. She passed her certification fine."

Molly will be an asset to the base, Jones said, because she can fit into spaces on a submarine where typical military working dog breeds, like a German shepherd or a Belgian Malinois, cannot.

The commands at the base can call for a submarine inspection at random, or when a submarine is leaving or returning. Nothing has been found since Jones and his supervisor, Master at Arms Second Class Danielle Kubit, started working in Groton in 2008.

Denno said he knows the "value and impact of these outstanding dog and handler teams."

The Groton kennel is one of the largest in the Northeast, and its teams of dogs and their handlers often travel. They routinely go to Naval Station Newport, which does not have its own kennel. Two teams are in Afghanistan, a third in Iraq.

Britt, who is half German shepherd, half Belgian Malinois, returned to Groton in 2007 after spending nine months in Anbar province. Dogs like Britt help find drugs or explosives hidden on people, in vehicles or by the roadside. They go on patrols and guard military bases.

Training the dogs

The military working dogs learn their skills at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

It takes an average of six months to train dogs to detect drugs or explosives and patrol. They learn basic obedience skills and how to recognize the odor of drugs or explosives. They get food or a toy when they recognize the smell.

The process is repeated until the dogs associate the odor with the reward and consistently find the odor, said Maj. Kathy Jordan, commander of the Department of Defense Military Working Dog School. A similar process is used to teach dogs to bite a suspect.

Jordan said the school trains about 270 dogs annually, to keep the total number for the Defense Department at about 2,000. A dog's average age at retirement is 8½ years old, but the average age prior to Sept. 11, 2001 was three years older because dogs were deploying much less.

"Whether it's bombs or drugs, people know that the dog is going to find it, and it's a deterrent," Jordan said, adding that a dog that is deployed and finds a bomb before it goes off probably saves lives.

Technology can't compete with a dog, Jordan said.

"Companies have brought equipment up here and put it against the dog," she said. "The dog's nose is just superior."

Dog on duty

For Molly, the training is not over yet.

She recently went on board the USS New Hampshire, her first time on an operational submarine.

Jones placed Molly in his beige backpack and climbed down the submarine's hatch. At the bottom, he unzipped the backpack and lifted Molly out.

She started to walk around the Virginia-class submarine, but she soon grew shy and intimidated by all the people who had gathered to watch.

The crew is accustomed to seeing large German shepherds lowered down on harnesses into submarines to check for drugs and explosives- not a 32-pound Springer spaniel.

Molly tried to hide. Jones held the leash to keep her in place so she lay down on the floor, coughing.

"She's not going to work," Jones said. "It's too much."

"How many times before she gets acclimated?" asked Cmdr. Michael Stevens, the ship's commanding officer.

"It will have to be an everyday thing, sir," Jones replied.

"How old is she?" Stevens asked.

"Ten, sir," Jones said.

"Really? Wow," Stevens said.

Lt. Cmdr. Mark Robinson, engineer on the New Hampshire (SSN 778), said using smaller dogs on the submarines seems like a good idea because they "can get into tight spaces, and it's easier for them to move around a small boat."

Jones will now begin taking Molly on the submarines regularly so she can get used to working in that environment. Jones expects her to do well, since she has progressed quickly with the rest of her training.

"She has come a long way," Jones said.

"I guess I pushed her pretty hard to get there. I asked a lot of her, and she did it."

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Military Working Dog, veterans honored at ceremony

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 5:14 p.m.

 

KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- A local Veteran's Day ceremony was held at the Rieger Armory in Kirksville.
   
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Greg Dabney was the master of ceremonies but the spotlight was on a four-legged military friend.
    
Debbie Kandoll and her retired Military Working Dog Benny came from New Mexico to be the guests of honor.

Kandoll was spreading the word about adopting Military Working Dogs after they serve our country.

Benny is a certified therapy dog and Debbie takes him to see soldiers and veterans across the country.

“He (Benny) enjoys relating to them, he knows that their his people.  He spent 10 years around guys and girls in uniforms and he just gets this grin on his face and this recognition of, 'hey, we're companions, we're paisonos, we're fellow military members.'  And he administers to them, he listens to them,” said Founder of Military Working Dog Adoptions Debbie Kandoll.

Benny served ten years in the military as a narcotics detection dog.

Kandoll says the phrase 'support our troops' isn't only about the two-legged soldiers but the four-legged ones as well.

She says the canines are treated well when they're serving the country but many of them are euthanized when their service ends.

“We're encouraging the status quo of viewing these dogs as equipment to change and that their status will be elevated to that of what they are, the military veteran.  Because when they're on active duty they're a soldier.  But the day they retire, they're considered a pet,” Kandoll said.

Click here to find out more about Military Working Dog Adoptions. 

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Sniffer dog that went missing in action after Afghan battle is discovered safe and sound after 14 MONTHS lost in the desert

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 6:23 PM on 12th November 2009

A sniffer dog that went missing in action after a battle in Afghanistan has been found safe and well after more than a year in the desert.

Sabi the black Labrador was with a joint Australian-Afghan army patrol when it was ambushed by Taliban militants in September 2008.

Nine soldiers were wounded in the ensuing gun battle, which earned one Australian SAS trooper the country's highest bravery award.

But there was no sign of the bomb-sniffing dog after the battle in a remote area of Uruzgan province.

Sabi's handlers spent months scouring the desert looking for the four-year-old animal, but to no avail.

Having a ball: Sabi at Forward Operating Base Ripley in Tarin Kowt, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan, after her amazing return

Last week - 14 months after she disappeared - a U.S. serviceman spotted a dog with an Afghan man at an isolated patrol base in another part of Uruzgan.

The Afghan handed Sabi over and the American quickly realised she must be a military-trained animal.

Within days, the Labrador was returned to her unit - no worse for wear.

Mark Donaldson, the SAS trooper awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing a wounded interpreter during the battle, said: 'Sabi's the last piece of the puzzle.

'Having Sabi back gives some closure for the handler and the rest of us that served with her in 2008. It's a fantastic morale-booster for the guys.'

The dog's unnamed handler told of the moment he was reunited with Sabi. He said: 'I nudged a tennis ball to her with my foot and she took it straight away.

'It's a game we used to play over and over during her training. It's amazing, just incredible, to have her back.'

Hero's welcome: Sabi is greeted by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US commander General Stanley McChrystal

The dog was returned to the Australians' base just in time for a visit by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was photographed along with the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, petting Sabi.

'Sabi is back home in one piece and is a genuinely nice pooch as well,' Rudd told reporters.

The canine star appeared composed and relaxed, showing no signs of stress - she even welcomed strangers with a sniff and a lick.
 

Exactly where Sabi has been or what happened to her during the past 14 months will probably never be known, though her good condition when she was found indicated somebody had been looking after her, military spokesman Brig. Brian Dawson said.

The dog was being tested for diseases before a decision was made on whether she can return to Australia.

More than 1,500 Australian troops are in Afghanistan and most are involved in training Afghan security forces. Among them are units that use dogs to sniff out roadside bombs and other explosive booby traps.

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'Sit! Stay! Snuggle!': An Iraq Vet Finds His Dog Tuesday

Trained for 2 Years, Retriever Helps Mr. Montalvan Get Back on His Feet

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN

NEW YORK -- Like any other golden retriever seeking a treat, Tuesday nudged his owner's hand with his snout one recent morning and waited expectantly.

Luis Carlos Montalvan got up from a chair in his small Brooklyn apartment and walked to the kitchen. Tuesday followed close behind, eyes fixed on a white cabinet. The retriever sat alertly as Mr. Montalvan, an Iraq war veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, reached for a vial of pills, lined a half-dozen on the table and took them one by one.

Tuesday

The dog had gotten what he wanted: When the last pill was swallowed, he got up and followed his master out of the kitchen, tail wagging.

Tuesday is a so-called psychiatric-service dog, a new generation of animals trained to help people whose suffering is not physical, but emotional. They are, effectively, Seeing Eye dogs for the mind.

Tuesday is with Mr. Montalvan at all hours. Taught to recognize changes in a person's breathing, perspiration or scent that can indicate an imminent panic attack, Tuesday can keep Mr. Montalvan buffered from crowds or deliver a calming nuzzle. Other dogs, typically golden retrievers, Labradors or Labrador retriever blends, are trained to wake masters from debilitating nightmares and to help patients differentiate between hallucinations and reality by barking if a real person is nearby.

"Tuesday is just extraordinarily empathetic," said Mr. Montalvan, 36 years old, a retired Army captain who received a Purple Heart for wounds he suffered in Iraq. "In bad moments, he'll lay his head on my leg, and it'll be like he's saying, 'You're OK. You're not alone.'"

Seeing Eye dogs were first systematically trained in Germany during World War I to aid blinded veterans. Today, psychiatric-service dogs are being trained to help veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan battles.

The federal government has given the dogs the same legal protections as other service animals, so Tuesday can ride the subway with Mr. Montalvan and accompany him to restaurants and theaters. But few of the dogs are available to former troops like Mr. Montalvan, one of the estimated 300,000 veterans of the two wars who will ultimately develop PTSD.

 

3:45

When Luis Montalvan was an Army Captain stationed in Iraq, he suffered serious injuries in an ambush. Back in the States, he's finding comfort from a service dog that tends to his injuries, both physical and emotional.

Puppies Behind Bars Inc., a New York-based nonprofit that uses prisoners to train animals, has placed psychiatric-service dogs with 11 veterans and hopes to provide 14 more this year. Gloria Gilbert Stoga, the charity's president, said it is difficult to raise the $26,000 needed to train each dog. "We're just scratching the surface," she said.

Tuesday was born on the upstate New York farm of Lu Picard, who runs East Coast Assistance Dogs Inc., a nonprofit that trains dogs to assist masters ranging from mentally handicapped children to stroke victims and quadriplegics.

Tuesday was eight weeks old when he and five siblings were turned over to Puppies Behind Bars, who moved them to New York's Fishkill Correctional Facility. The pup shared a cell with John Pucci, a convicted killer who assumed primary responsibility for molding Tuesday into a service dog.

"No one thought he would make it," said Mr. Pucci, explaining that Tuesday would fall asleep in other prisoners' laps as they watched television and would sometimes hide under Mr. Pucci's bed and refuse to leave the cell. Inmates bet Mr. Pucci some cigarettes that Tuesday was too affectionate to be a service dog.

Mr. Pucci discovered that Tuesday loved the jail's small inflatable pool and would run through commands perfectly if he was in the water. In nine months, Mr. Pucci taught Tuesday to respond to 82 commands geared mainly toward helping the physically disabled -- turning on lights with his nose, retrieving food from shelves, helping load washing machines.

"I got released before I could collect the cigarettes," said Mr. Pucci, 64 years old, who served 29 years and now lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he continues to train dogs.

Tuesday returned to Ms. Picard's farm, where his skills were fine-tuned for another 18 months. Ms. Picard taught him to respond to signs of anxiety and commands tailored to veterans with PTSD: "block," which tells the dog to create space for an owner who fears crowds, "my lap" and "snuggle."

Mr. Montalvan grew up in Potomac, Md., a wealthy suburb of Washington, where he played war games with friends. He enlisted at 17, spent a decade in the Army and enrolled in college to pursue a career as an officer.

In the summer of 2003, newly commissioned as a second lieutenant, he left for Iraq. Photos from the time show a square-jawed man with bulging muscles. Comrades jokingly called him the "Terminator."

View Full Image

Leslie Granda-Hill

Luis Carlos Montalvan at a New York bookstore with Tuesday, who goes with him everywhere and is trained to respond to signs of anxiety.

 

 

That changed in December 2003. Mr. Montalvan was walking in a compound on Iraq's border with Syria at around 9:30 p.m. when a man leaped out of the darkness and started slashing at him with a knife.

He pulled out his Beretta and shot the man, wounding him. Another soldier killed the attacker, according to Army records and several soldiers who served in the unit. Mr. Montalvan was thrown into a truck, fracturing three vertebrae.

Tall with long hair and broad shoulders, Mr. Montalvan now walks with a cane. But his biggest problems, he says, are emotional. "Sometimes my mind goes jumbled," he said one afternoon as he struggled to remember which subway line to take home. "Everything just gets kind of cloudy."

His marriage fell apart in late 2005. He left the Army two years later and severed many friendships. He began to fear crowds and drink himself to sleep. He regularly considered suicide, he says. A local Veterans Affairs medical facility has prescribed painkillers for his back, migraine pills for brain injury, and drugs for anxiety and depression.

By last summer, Mr. Montalvan was living alone in a small apartment in Brooklyn. He was surfing the Web in July when he saw a mass email about free trained service dogs for veterans with physical or psychological wounds -- the "Dog Tags" program of Puppies Behind Bars.

He submitted a formal application. By early November, he joined a group of veterans at Ms. Picard's farm in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., for two weeks of training with their new dogs.

Mr. Montalvan says he initially didn't feel much of a connection to Tuesday. The dog licked other people's faces, but not his. For the first four months they lived together in Brooklyn, Tuesday was obedient but not particularly affectionate.

"I guess it just took us a while to adjust to each other," he says.

They did. Tuesday, now 3 years old, listens to the daily alarm on Mr. Montalvan's wristwatch, his cue to make sure he takes his pills. Wearing the red harness of a work dog, he accompanies Mr. Montalvan to Dunkin' Donuts and the movie theater, to Veterans Administration group counseling sessions in Manhattan, and to Columbia University, where Mr. Montalvan is studying journalism and communication.

At Mr. Montalvan's apartment -- decorated with his Purple Heart and Bronze Star certificates, and pictures and paintings of Tuesday -- they sleep in the same wooden sleigh bed.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Montalvan and Tuesday walked to a nearby subway station. The platform was crowded. Mr. Montalvan began to look agitated. Tuesday, who had been lying at his feet, jumped up and stood between his master and the nearest cluster of people, creating a buffer. Mr. Montalvan's breathing noticeably stabilized.

The train approached. Mr. Montalvan bent down to tie his Army combat boots, scratched Tuesday behind the ears, and they made their way aboard.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com

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Military working dog team inspects potential 22,000-gallon bomb

by Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher

386th Air Expeditionary Public Affairs

4/10/2009 - CAMP BUCCA, Iraq (AFNS) -- Military working dog handlers and their canine partners are used throughout Southwest Asia to detect explosives that are meant to injure servicemembers and innocent civilians.

For one dog handler, Staff Sgt. Joseph Null, and his dog, Lucca, this task took an interesting turn.

"There was a fuel truck that had gone off road and got stuck in the sand," said the sergeant, who is part of the 42nd Military Police Brigade. "It had been abandoned overnight, and I was tasked to go out with the Army to sweep the area leading up to the vehicle and basically clear the area for improvised explosive devices that had been attached to the vehicle."

This is an important, though dangerous step, he said.

"Anytime you're going to have people go into an unknown area, you want to clear it as best as you possibly can," Sergeant Null said. "If you can have an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team clear it or a bomb-sniffing dog go out there and clear the area, then you're taking one more threat away from the Soldier who has to go out there and do a job."  

But IEDs weren't the only threat posed by the abandoned truck. It was carrying 22,000 gallons of gas, potentially turning the truck into a massive fuel bomb.

"That makes a pretty big bomb if there's some C4 strapped to it," he said.

For 45 agonizing minutes, Sergeant Null and Lucca searched the area, the handler waiting for the working dog to give him some sign that all wasn't well with the tanker truck.

"It makes you a little nervous clearing a real area, because you know it's the real deal," he said. "But that's your job. This is what I signed up to do. Somebody's got to do it, right? If my dog had sat, I would have praised her and gotten back to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle as quick as possible to report what had happened."

At this point, it was Lucca's show. The German Shepherd would either sit, indicating the presence of a bomb, or she wouldn't.

"You don't look at the dog as a dog," Sergeant Null said. "You train together all the time. We've been together since June and I couldn't count the number of hours we've spent together. It's like having a best friend. You think on that same wavelength. My dog goes and does her job, and you know what to look for while she does her job. If you can't trust the dog, you shouldn't be out there anyway."

But Lucca didn't sit. The truck was clear.

"Everything was good to go," Sergeant Null said.

Eight hours later, the truck was finally pulled free of the sand, and the convoy made its way back to base. Sergeant Null said that although his primary mission is inside the wire, he's more than willing to go out again if called upon.  

"It's my job," he said. "It's the best job in the Air Force. You get to play with a dog and get paid pretty well for it. You can't beat that."

Col. Alan Metzler, 586th Air Expeditionary Group commander, said Joint Expeditionary Tasking Airmen like Sergeant Null are providing critical services in the joint environment and excelling at it.

"Our combat Airmen are doing an outstanding job in support of the mission at Camp Bucca, and Sergeant Null proves it," Colonel Metzler said. "Often, they have to adapt to situations and perform unique missions we don't normally ask them to do in the Air Force. Airmen like him demonstrate the Air Force's commitment to our mission in Iraq."

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Dog trained in military prison to help amputee

By Amanda Greene
Staff Writer

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Helping a different kind of vet - Kandolls adopt War Dog Benny

28 February 2008 – By Sarah A. Wise • NL Staff Writer   

News Leader



Most pet owners think their animal is special in some way. Maybe it’s their pup’s talent for fetching, or their cat’s ability to entertain itself for hours.

But what makes Debbie Kandoll’s dog Benny special is a truly unique thing indeed: Benny is a retired member of the United States military.

Debbie and her husband Mike, who live in the Pikeville area, adopted the German Shepherd earlier this year. Benny came to the Kandolls through a program that allows civilians to adopt military war dogs once they retire.

Though Benny wasn’t adopted until January of this year, Debbie said adopting a military war dog had been on her mind for several years.

She said she first heard of the program around the time it began. Though dogs had been assisting the military for decades, it wasn’t until President Bill Clinton signed a bill approving their adoption in 2000 that any of those dogs had a life beyond their service. Prior to that bill, once their service had ended, military war dogs were declared excess equipment by the military and euthanized.

Since then, Debbie had been thinking about adopting one of the dogs, but her husband wasn’t always sold on the idea.
“I grew up with animals in the house,” she said. “He grew up on a farm, where the animals always stayed outside, and didn’t like the idea of animals in the house.”

However, after Mike returned from a deployment to Iraq, Debbie said she told him if he was deployed again, she wanted to adopt a dog to keep her company while he was gone.

When things began to look like he wouldn’t be deployed again, Debbie said she began thinking about getting horses. It was then that her husband brought the idea of adopting a military war dog back to the table.

“Sometimes I say that he agreed to get the dog so I wouldn’t get horses,” she joked.

It was November 28 of last year that Mike agreed to adopt the dog, and Debbie began searching the next day. But the process, she found, is not as simple as one would think.

She had been directed to contact Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, which is where the military war dog program is based. However, she discovered through contacting the base that its more effective to contact local military bases that have a military war dog program, because they prefer to adopt dogs to local people.

After months of calling and checking, Debbie finally located Benny at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Once she adopted Benny, Debbie said she noticed an eerie coincidence that affirms her faith that God had a hand in bringing Benny to her. Benny had been declared excess by the military on November 29, the same day Debbie began her search. And though it took her a while to get connected with him, Debbie said that her adoption of Benny literally saved his life – he was on the schedule to be euthanized.

Debbie and her husband drove up to Virginia to pick up Benny on January 4. At first, the excitement was mingled with anxiety about how Benny, who had spent his entire life in a kennel, would adopt to the myriad of new situations before him.

But Benny has adjusted quite well. He loves children, new people, and other animals, which is fortunate for the Kandolls’ cat Simba who ruled the roost before Benny’s arrival.

Debbie explained that when they first got Benny, he was not a mean-spirited animal, but he was very restrained.

“Because of his training, he was very restrained,” she said. “He was like a robot-dog for the first few weeks. But as he got more comfortable, his personality began to shine through.”

Benny’s military career was ended due to a slight problem with his leg, which had been aggravated from standing on his hind legs to sniff for drugs. The problem doesn’t hinder Benny on a day-to-day basis, and Debbie said it has actually improved since adoption. Leg spasms have ceased since Benny adjusted to sleeping on soft cushions rather than concrete floors.

Overall, Debbie said she is overjoyed by the new addition to her family. But her adoption of Benny brought her more than a furry friend. She feels that her experience with the process has given her a chance to spread the word about these dogs.

Too many are still euthanized because they can’t find homes, she said. And Debbie feels that there is a lot of confusion and misinformation out there about how to go about adopting an animal like Benny.

So the former teacher and Air Force Reservist spends her days working with Benny and municipal organizations to have an open discussion about adopting animals, and the many benefits of doing so.

“I just want to let people know that anyone who wants to make a difference in just one life can do so,” she said.

Debbie has compiled a wealth of information about the process on the Internet, and is also willing to speak and work with anyone interested in adopting a war dog. She is also assisting with a presentation about war dogs at the 2008 Memorial Day event in Pikeville.

In addition to serving as an ambassador for the program, Benny volunteers as a therapy dog, and will soon be completely licensed. Earlier this month, he went with Seymour Johnson airmen to visit disabled veterans.

“He was a real charmer,” said Debbie, noting that as he met the patients, he would offer his paw for a handshake.

She added that, even amongst the military personnel she encountered at Seymour Johnson, there was a lot of misinformation about how to adopt one of the dogs.

“I had people asking me if I had to fill out a massive application, which I didn’t,” she said. “That just shows you how much misinformation is out there, and I want to do what I can to help change that.”

Visit http://www.uswardogs.org/new_page_5.htm for more information. For an outline of the adoption process, click on the small picture of Benny.

News Leader

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Working  Working dog teams search, patrol together