FORT SILL, Okla., Nov. 17, 2016 -- They might be government issue to the Army, but Military Working Dogs (WMD) are much more than that to their Soldier handlers. Sometimes they even get to be part of the Soldier's family when the K-9 retires.
"It's a very rewarding position," said Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Oliver, kennelmaster at the 902nd Military Working Dog Detachment here. "You are everything to that animal. They don't talk back. They don't have an opinion. You're just borrowing this animal for the next handler," he said. How a Soldier trains the dog determines how well the next handler will work with his or her new partner.
Oliver said he was deployed to Bosnia as a military policeman when he first saw the K-9s working there, and decided his re-enlistment would be as a dog handler. He's been at it since 2003, and has seen a few deployments with K-9s.
The unofficial tradition is that MWDs are one rank higher than that of their handler, so that they are accorded the respect due to them, said Oliver.
Another, more official, tradition is naming dogs who were born at the military working dog training center (341st Training Squadron) at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas with double first letters. Zzazu, for instance, is a retired Belgian Malinois living with the family of Sgt. Jarred Palmer, who was deployed to Kuwait last week.
At Fort Sill, one of the seven dog teams is generally deployed overseas at any given time. Sgt. Andy Lopez and his 9-year-old German Shepherd partner Dag are due to return from Iraq at the end of November.
The K-9s (as they are also called) are often given retirement ceremonies as well. "These handlers and dogs go through so much," said Oliver. Until a law was passed in 2000, MWDs no longer needed were euthanized because they were deemed unfit to return to normal life. Now they are allowed to be adopted by their handlers or others, as long as they are able to make the transition to "civilian" life.
If a retired dog is too aggressive to be a family pet, it either returns to Lackland AFB to be used as a training asset, or gets put down, said Oliver. "It's not the animal's fault because he's really good at his job. It's just that he doesn't have the on/off switch."
While MWDs are trained as patrol/attack dogs, they must specialize in either narcotics or explosives detection. The handler would otherwise not know which type of scent the dog has alerted on, and it would just make training more difficult. Using an MWD to apprehend a suspect is one step below deadly force, he said. "If you are in the predicament of using your military working dog, things have gone south very quickly."
Oliver said people should be cautious when they are around a working dog team. "Don't approach unless being directed to by the handler," he said. "Don't walk up behind a dog team. Take all commands from the handler." Dogs will attack without command if they feel their handler is threatened.
Handlers and their canine partners generally do a daily shift at one of the post gates, conducting a random anti-terrorism measures (RAM) search. In March of this year, K-9 Spike and his handler, Cpl. Gregory Grubbs of Alvin, Texas, conducted a RAM search more than a year ago at Bentley Gate. Spike, a Belgian Malinois, alerted on narcotics in a private vehicle.
"He froze and stared at me," said Grubbs. His rear legs were in the passenger seat and his front legs were over the back seat. "I gave him his toy, told him he did a good job for finding something, and called the MPs."
The dogs are trained to sit and look at the handler when they find narcotics, but some develop their own eccentricities depending on how they were trained previously. "Spike will freeze exactly where he is. If he's got two feet on the ground or not, he'll turn around and stare at me," said Grubbs, who now works with Ash, a Belgian Malinois.
Grubbs, who has two mixed breed dogs of his own, said it takes several months to develop a strong bond between dog and Soldier, and even though the hours are long, the job is "extremely rewarding."
"The end result of watching dogs progress in the time you've worked with them, and seeing their advancement through the hard work you put into them, is getting back in return their affection and willingness to work with you."
Cpl. Alexandra Clark of Lake Helen, Fla. is partnered with a 5-year-old German shepherd named Oki, a patrol explosives detection dog, also called a bomb dog. They were among K-9 teams from across the country which did security patrols at both the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.
"My job was to secure the parking lot outside the stadium and search every vehicle that came through," she said of the job in Cleveland. In Philadelphia they searched the buses that brought convention delegates, and worked at a checkpoint searching every vehicle entering.
Late last month they went to Chicago, attached to Secretary of State John Kerry's detail during his visit there. "I was the only dog team and had two EOD (explosives ordnance detachment) technicians with me. My job was to clear every place he (Kerry) was going to go. I did a studio where he did a broadcast, a huge auditorium, his hotel room, where he went to eat. It was exciting."
She had also met Kerry while stationed in Korea in May 2015 when he visited the troops. "He pet my dog," she said. "I liked him. He asked each Soldier's name, what their detail was. He was real interested in the dogs."
Clark grew up with a kennel full of hunting hounds (blue ticks, black-and-tans, beagles, bloodhounds, Catahoulas) and has been training K-9s for three years.
"I'm still amazed with their capabilities, their nose, the real small amounts of odor they're so eager to find." she said. "It's all for their KONG. This is the most demanding, time-consuming job with rigorous hours, hard training every single day, but at the end of the day you're playing with dogs, and you have your best friend with you who loves to do his job and is willing to die for you, for his toy."
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