Good dogs of war

Toronto Sun ^ | 2007-12-27 | Peter Worthington

[Clive]

One of the great concerns of those who are responsible for our military is morale -- how to keep it high.

The most effective way to ensure high morale is efficiency and competence. That is, if soldiers know what's expected of them, have the support of their superiors, and are allowed to do their job effectively, their morale is usually good.

In war, winning is a guaranteed morale builder. But these days, unlike WWII, "winning" often has a definition different from simply beating the enemy -- which our troops are doing pretty effectively in Afghanistan.

Support of the government for our military (rare in the past, unlike today), and support from the public, makes soldiers feel good, but can't compensate for training, discipline, pride in one's regiment.

(I'm referring mostly to the army, but this also applies to air force and navy, whose morale these days seems at a lower ebb, because Afghanistan is primarily a military role, and gets more attention. Decades of neglect by past Canadian governments deprived the military of equipment and updating in the name of saving money. But that's another story).

If I were head of the Canadian military, or even if I were defence minister, one of the ways I'd foster morale in the field would be to encourage units or sub-units to adopt a dog.

In Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, stray dogs seemed to be everywhere, ready and eager to be adopted by soldiers, or those assigned to permanent observation posts (OPs). Something similar is happening in Afghanistan.

Curiously, some regiments like to be associated with dogs, others don't. In the Balkans, at one stage, the Princess Pats (unofficially) had a lot of dogs around.

When replaced by the Royal Canadian Regiment, the commanding officer initially ordered that all the dogs his unit inherited be disposed of.

Which meant being shot.

The Pats found that dogs that adopted them were often like sentries. They could sense when Serbs or Croats were approaching, and barked -- probably because of the different diet of locals.

Useful warning, especially at night.

It's uncanny how a dog becomes a respected member of a team. The dog knows its group, knows soldiers as individuals, and shares interest and affection.

Soldiers grow intensely attached to dogs that adopt them.

In Croatia, at one point, I remember a Jack Russell that adopted the crew of a personnel carrier, and followed them on missions, often running beneath the moving vehicle.

The Canadian Press carried a story the other day of Vandoos in Afghanistan adopting a couple of stray pups found in a deserted village -- one named Mira (for "Miracle") the other Goulash (for the least-favourite rations). At night Mira sleeps beside the soldiers.

"It's good for morale," said Cpl. Marc-Andre Fournier.

"We don't think of the frustrations out there with the war. It's a bit of a release."

Exactly. In past wars, lucky units have been adopted by dogs which served honourably, often courageously, always loyally.

Personally, I remember leading patrols in the Korean war with a dog trained to detect by smell the presence of Chinese. Orders were that if necessary, we were to kill the dog rather than let it be captured by the Chinese, who could retrain it to detect us. Our diet gave us a different odour.

We never said anything about these "orders," but every one of us on such a patrol knew that we would never shoot the dog.

Fortunately, the choice never came up.

Anyway, if I bossed the Canadian military, I'd encourage all units in the field to recruit dogs as morale-builders.

[Clive]

Here is a link to the FR posting of the Canadian Press story referred to in Worthington's article:

Rescued pups boost troop morale

[Clive]

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[Recon Dad]

Soldiers grow intensely attached to dogs that adopt them

Clive, the Marines do the same thing. My son’s team had a dog, Daryl was his name,in Afghanistan. They just handed him off to their replacements. The dog ate better than they did.

[fanfan]

[DieHard the Hunter]

Great thread, mate!