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FORT HUACHUCA — When it comes to using dogs as part of the Army’s military police community, a small number of two- and four-legged teams are involved in providing protection.
The 18th Military Police Detachment’s Military Working Dogs section on this Southern Arizona post has eight dogs and handlers assigned, but not all of them work on the fort.
As members are being called to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, so are the working dog teams.
 Photos by Bill Hess•Herald/Review Military Police Sgt. James Adolfson and his dog, Staff Sgt. J.R., leave for Afghanistan on Saturday for a yearlong deployment. |
One team, Sgt. Stephen Gruden and Staff Sgt. Goliath, is currently deployed.
On Saturday, Sgt. James Adolfson and J.R., another four-legged staff sergeant, will head to Afghanistan on a yearlong deployment.
Since Adolfson and J.R. have become a team and the notification of deployment has come down, they have been doing additional training.
The teams are constantly being trained, but for Adolfson, extra time in the field keeps he and J.R. better prepared.
On Thursday, the pair and other teams took part in training on a dirt road near the fort’s Radar Ridge.
Kennel Master Sgt. 1st Class Ruben Alaniz said the post’s environment is similar to Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the summer months.
Adolfson said it helps to train J.R. for “two or three hours” in the heat so the dog will be acclimatized when they deploy.
Alaniz deployed with Anka to Afghanistan last year, only to return early when he and the animal suffered minor concussions from an explosion.
Like J.R., Anka is a specialized search dog, one that works off a leash being sent out to check out afar potential deadly hazards. The dog’s rank is master sergeant, which is new due to Alaniz’s promotion.
On the dirt road, both dogs worked “an abandoned truck,” something enemy forces in both countries like to pack with explosives. The handlers keep in sight of the dogs, using hand signals to direct the animals.
Anka hovers around to determine if there are explosives.
J.R. acts more like a pointer, his nose targeting the area and tail straight back, Adolfson said.
Capt. Theresa Allaire, the detachment’s new commander, watched the two dogs train. The importance of the teams cannot be overstated, she said.
And, in the continuing world of deployment for America’s armed forces the need for dogs to help detect explosive devices is important, she said.
Adolfson finished dog handler training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, last year.
“I knew we would deploy,” he said.
His wife, Amy, understands when he became a handler that deployment would come, Adolfson said. The couple have a 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Taylor.
As a specialized search dog, J.R. was ready to find explosives in the pickup truck.
Small amounts of explosive material are used during training so the animals can keep their noses on the job, so to speak.
Anka and J.R. are the only specialized search dogs at the fort kennel. Adolfson described them as “human and dog friendly.”
They are not trained not to be aggressive, although when the two leave by commercial plane this weekend, J.R. will be muzzled, a needed protection since the dog will fly in the aircraft’s passenger compartment.
The other dogs at the fort’s military police kennels are trained to be aggressive and protect their handlers while they search for explosives or narcotics.
They are basically leash controlled, although they can be let off the control line to attack.
Earlier this year, two teams, Spc. James Tuman and Britt and Staff Sgt. Matt Clayton and Beast, returned at different times after 12-month deployments to Iraq. Both soldiers was deployed to Iraq in 2003, with Clayton as a dog handler team and Tuman as a gunner.
In the world of military working dogs, the animals always outrank their handlers, making Britt a sergeant and Beast a sergeant first class. As handlers are promoted, so are their dogs. The old Army had dogs outrank the handlers because if the human mistreats the animals they can be charged with harming a superior ranking soldier.
Dogs also can receive decorations. During their last deployments, Britt and Beast were given Army Commendation Medals.
Clayton said missions in Iraq included cordon searches, manning check points and participating in raids looking for insurgents.
There are scary times.
With a week to go on his deployment, Clayton was instructing new soldier and dog teams when a firefight broke out near the Tigris River. It was dangerous, and firing continued for a long period of time, he said.
For Tuman, there was no one specific time when he thought it was more dangerous.
“The whole time was,” he said.
But looking back at his most recent deployment. Tuman said, “It was an awesome experience.”
Spc. Patricio Tristan, a young soldier in training as a dog handler, also was with his dog, Sgt. Szark, on Thursday. Tristan played the part of a person Clayton and Tuman and their dogs were looking for inside the LakeSide Activity Centre, which is no longer in use.
When Britt and Beast found him, they attacked the specialist, who wore padding to protect him from their bites.
When Tuman and Britt marched the soldier out of the building, the dog barked an almost perfect cadence as if the woofs were calling out “left, left, left.”
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
