Ron Wescott and his battle buddy David Klein were both dog handlers in the Army and were deployed for a year with Delta Battery, 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery to Camp Huston in in Yeoju, South Korea in 1976.
Nearly 40 years later, Leigh Anne Dargocey, Wescott's daughter, through a contact here on post, arranged a surprise for her dad's 60th birthday -- a trip from Pennsylvania to Fort Jackson to hang out with the military working dogs and their handlers.
Wescott had warned his wife, Kathy, 'if I come down here [to Fort Jackson], you realize I'm going to fall in love again' -- it's been 40 years."
After observing graduation, Ron, his family and his battle buddy were escorted to the kennels on post.
"When we trained, we were in Korea, so we had Quonset huts and during the winter we had little space heaters," Ron said. "We were out in the middle of rice paddies, nowhere near towns or villages at the missile batteries."
He explained to Sgt. Weston Reeves, one of Fort Jackson's dog handlers, that the facilities for the dogs back then were extremely basic - little dog houses outside with guillotine doors to keep the dogs in.
"They have concrete buildings here [at Fort Jackson], refrigerators and stoves -- we had double decker cots and the difference is night and day," said Wescott. "They have the conveniences I wish I had back then."
After touring the kennels, everyone headed outside to the obstacle course to see a demonstration.
"Even in Korea we had obstacle courses, not quite this detailed," Said Wescott.
Everyone looked on as Reeves ran his 8-year old German shepherd, Gino, through the course.
"This working off leash is a beautiful thing to see. At least 40 years ago not all dogs could do this," said Wescott. "My dog's name was Duke, he was 10, he was the 'papa' or 'grand-dog' of all the dogs we had and working off leash was second nature because he'd done it for so long."
After Gino flew through the course, he got a few minutes of play time to visit with the group.
Ron was smitten with Gino.
"This is wonderful - I think I'm a teenager again for a couple of hours - I'm a 60-some year old man that's been instantly transformed back to 19 or 20 years old -- it's amazing."
Then it was time to do some other training, sniffing out items hidden by another handler.
While watching Gino warn his master he had found something in the woods, Ron explained their dogs in Korea were strictly sentry dogs -- they weren't specialized like they are today for things such as explosives and drugs.
Several more Fort Jackson dogs and their handlers showed off their skills to the group -- one team recently returned from Afghanistan -- and the other, a handler just back from the same area of Korea Ron and David had been to so many years ago.
Wescott and Klein were eager to hear their stories, and ask questions about what Korea was like today.
The handler of the team returning from Afghanistan had been wounded in action and explained how that event impacted both him and his dog.
Wescott commented that relationships between military working dogs and their handlers that hasn't seemed to change over the years.
"When you're working 10,000, 12,000 miles from home, it's family -- you know you got very, very attached," said Wescott. "As much as these men [Fort Jackson K-9 MPs] are attached to their dogs, it's going to be even more so."
Ron thanked everyone personally for their time as the visit with the Fort Jackson Military Police K-9 Unit came to an end.
Klein, now a retired lieutenant colonel, noticed at the big smile on his battle buddy's face and simply said, "The Army has been good to us."
Social Sharing