US Navy's 'Flipper' goes AWOL

News.com (Australia) ^ | March 31st, 2003

[Sabertooth]

US Navy's 'Flipper' goes AWOL

Staff Sgt. Justin Roberts escorts K-Dog, a Bottle Nose Dolphin belonging to Commander Task Unit.

In Bahrain, sea lions are being used to detect unauthorized swimmers near U.S. Navy ships.

A sea lion moves through the water with a training device during a harbor-patrol exercise.

Photo Credits: Courtesy U.S. Navy

March 31, 2003

AUSTRALIAN military divers yesterday questioned the effectiveness of the US Navy's mine-clearing dolphins, revealing one had disappeared for two days.

The polite way to express their scepticism about the mine-clearing skills of the dolphins is to question their reliability and cost-efficiency, but one diver spoke more plainly yesterday.

"Flipper's f----ed, mate," he said.

"The dolphins have had all this amazing publicity but as soon as they put one in the water it shot through. There's a war going on and Flipper goes AWOL (absent without leave)."

The diver said the dolphin returned two days later.

But in the interim, the US Navy brought in another dolphin by helicopter.

"That meant some of our gear got bumped off the flight," he said.

K-Dog, a U.S. Navy dolphin trained to detect underwater mines,
leaps out of the water during exercises in the Persian Gulf.

The handlers of the five dolphins at work in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr confirmed yesterday that one of their charges, a male named Tacoma, did disappear when put in the water to go to work.

"Two days later we found him in the same spot where we put him in the water," said Lieutenant Robert Greene, the officer in charge of the M-7 series of mine-clearing dolphins.

Tacoma was yesterday resting in his holding pool with the Navy's oldest dolphin, 33-year-old Makay.

Makay has been more diligent in Iraq, perhaps learning from a painful experience when he, too, took off from duty once in Florida.

A shark attacked him during his self-declared holiday, leaving him with scars on his back.

Lt Greene said the dolphins had been a great success in Iraq in using their sonar to detect potential mines and placing markers on them to guide human divers to the targets.

[sweetliberty]

LOL!

[jimtorr]

""Cetaceans have an advanced play instinct, a much greater capacity for calculated mischief, and also for the spontaneous creation of games with basic rules.""

I had an opportunity to go visit 'Keiko' the killer whale while he was in the aquarium on the Oregon coast. As he swam about the quite large tank he was obviously as much interested in the people as the people were interested in him.

The trainers said that he demanded (how, they didn't say) that someone keep him company at all times. To keep him entertained they would turn on a television and place it in a window in his tank so that he could watch.

The trainers said that he was bored by comedy and love scenes, but that he liked action-adventure shows and movies. They would test him, somehow (again, they didn't say how), and found that he had a limited understanding of what was happening in some scenes that he watched.

It could be that some cetaceans are quite intelligent, but that they just aren't interested in the same things as we are, so we don't see it. Even the dolphins may be to playful to demonstrate their intelligence.

Remember the series of stories by David Brin?

[rabidralph]

"Two days later we found him in the same spot where we put him in the water,"

Wow. Failure to go. Disobeying a direct order. Sounds like someone has Captain's Mast in his future.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

He's back! Wonder if he has a guilty grin on his face.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Ping!

[SamAdams76]

Damn dolphin. I bet he got drunk, hit a whorehouse and didn't have enough money to make it back to base. I hope they take away a stripe and give him two weeks of hard labor - such as clearing beer and soda cans off the bottom of the ocean floor.

[lawgirl]

Dolphins are such smart creatures- I bet if they don't want to perform you can't get them to. Kind of like a cat. :-D

[rwfromkansas]

"That meant some of our gear got bumped off the flight," he said.

Ah, here we go. This is the real reason why the Aussie is having a hissy fit.

He has a case of dolphin envy.....he doesn't like being second in consideration by the U.S. military.....:) lol

[putupon]

The diver said the dolphin returned two days later.

This is good. At first I was worried that Flipper had changed his name to Flipper X and defected to Al Queda or Hamas.

[Justa]

AWOL is not the appropriate term. As he was on a mission the correct term is MIA. Of course that would engender sympathy for the coalition so the media won't use it.

[alexandria]

The handlers of the five dolphins at work in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr confirmed yesterday that one of their charges, a male named Tacoma, did disappear when put in the water to go to work.

One of those burka wearing hussies got to him.

[HairOfTheDog]

Wow. Failure to go. Disobeying a direct order. Sounds like someone has Captain's Mast in his future.

Gulp! - Give 'em another chance!

[ewing]

Does Takoma have a tatoo and potential Veneral Disease after his 48 hour pass?

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

"Two days later we found him in the same spot where we put him in the water," said Lieutenant Robert Greene,

A likely story. I can't believe anyone bought that.

Tacoma was yesterday resting in his holding pool with the Navy's oldest dolphin, 33-year-old Makay.

Yeah right. He's in the brig being dressed down by a seasoned officer.

[battlegearboat]

Free Willy.

[GreenLanternCorps]

Everyone here is way off base, the AWOL story is just a ruse. I have it on good authority (A friend's friend's third cousin twice removed, who knows a girl who used to date a guy a CENTCOM HQ) that the Dolphin is a SEAL and was on a mission up the Euphrates...

Don't know the details but there may be a Navy Cross or possibly even a Medal of Honor in it for him... But you didn't here it from me.

[mollynme]

Hmm - looking for those 2 flyers who parachuted into the river???? LOL