[nagdu] Fw: PENTAGON MEMO. Beloved New Warriors On the Modern Battlefield.

[Ed Meskys]

Subject: PENTAGON MEMO. Beloved New Warriors On the Modern Battlefield.


PENTAGON MEMO. Beloved New Warriors On the Modern Battlefield.
NY Times Thursday, 2011_05_12
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 nonaggressive, 
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.
PHOTOS: Dogs like Sgt. Brian Maxwell's, on patrol in Afghanistan, are 
trained to
sniff out explosives. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JOAO SILVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES); 
Making
a
practice jump with soldiers of the 10th Special Forces Group over the Gulf 
of
Mexico.
(PHOTOGRAPH BY MANUEL J. MARTINEZ/U.S. AIR FORCE, VIA REUTERS) .