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Lackland Air Force Base, TX. (June 15, 2022): Since ancient times, dogs have served alongside their handlers in all manner of combat situations. During WWII, America established the War Dog Program with the requisition of 11,000 dogs needed for combat service around the world. In 1965, the Air Force fielded dog and handler teams for missions in Viet Nam that evolved into today’s Air Force Security Forces Center/Army Veterinary Corps, 341st Training Squadron.
The school houses up to 900 dogs graduating approximately 270 multi-purpose warriors a year. Dogs are selected for their temperament and acumen and only half qualify for training as working dogs. Dogs and their handlers must pass a grueling 93-day course at Lackland followed by a field portion at Yuma, Arizona. The school teaches a Specialized Dog Course (for dogs dealing with explosives or narcotics), a Dog Handler's Course, and a new Combat Dog Tracker Course that just graduated its first set of Marines and their dogs.
In this U.S. Army photo, Specialist Michael Coffey and his dog Max, assigned to the 550th Military Working Dog Detachment, 503rd Military Police Battalion, practice “controlled aggression” during training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Max is an explosive detector dog trained for work on dismounted patrols in combat situations.
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Our K9 Warrior support program yields fun moments like this recent K9 Christmas Party!
Good Morning Ma’am, -- Words can’t express how grateful the MWDs and their handlers are for your gracious acts of love throughout this entire year. You have continuously kept our K9s in your thoughts and it is tremendously kind of you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope you have a great holiday. The generous gifts that were donated allowed us to throw the hard working dogs of Yokota a party. Our MWDs are very happy and so are the handlers. ~~ OCONUS location
These K-9 teams face some of the most stressful and dangerous assignments in the military. At Support Our Troops.org, we have a tailored assistance program to ship much needed items for their care. Please be one of their best friends by donating to https://supportourtroops.org/donate.
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Today’s Working Dog teams developed from a mutually beneficial relationship between man and dogs going back centuries. The earliest evidence of humans domesticating dogs was in cave paintings in Germany dating back 14,000 years. It is believed wild wolves would hang around human hunting camps looking for scraps that grew into the partnership with dogs we enjoy today.
In 600 B.C., hounds were used to break up enemy formations by charging into enemy ranks, scattering soldiers to the four winds. During America’s Civil War, the most famous war dog was Jack, the mascot for the 102nd Pennsylvania Infantry. Jack joined the regiment when he was adopted by the unit after he wandered into their fire station. Jack accompanied the fighting 102nd in numerous battles throughout the war, patrolling the perimeter, acting as a sentry, and he even delivered messages between units.
Then, as now, America’s K-9 Corps is the first line of defense for our troops around the world.
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Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. (June 1, 2022): Perhaps the greatest gift dogs bring to mankind is their unique sense of smell. Dogs have over 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses (compared to just six million for humans) making their sense of smell 40 times greater than man. Scientists also say dogs have something called Neophilia which makes them attracted to new and different smells.
Incredibly, a dog’s sense of smell is so powerful that it can detect a drop of liquid in twenty Olympic style swimming pools. The military puts these talents to work to sniff out bombs, detect drugs, find suspects, and discover bodies at disaster scenes.
In this photo by Corporal Taylor Schwamb, military working dog Bbutler searches for a narcotics training aid during drug detection drills at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. Narcotics training requires a dog to detect five differ types of drugs including marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. Dogs are evaluated on how well they conduct a search pattern, obedience to commands and success at detecting even tiny amounts of narcotics.
Read more: THE NOSE KNOWS… A K-9’S SPECIAL ABILITY SAVES LIVES
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In this edition of Support Our Troops.org, we present the fascinating world of America’s K-9 teams and the many ways they keep our servicemembers safe. Military working dog teams participate in dangerous missions all over the world, often in extreme conditions for extended periods. These K-9 handlers work long hours, many times away from home and family, while the hone the skills that save lives in combat.
What began as a request from a dog handler for “hard to get” K-9 supplies resulted in Support Our Troops.org founding the Military Paws Program to assist the 2,000 or so military working dog teams operating around the world.
Here’s how it works.
Support Our Troops.org realized that, while our armed forces do an excellent job providing the basics, America’s K-9 teams lacked some of the “comfort” items commonly enjoyed by civilian pet owners.
Support Our Troops.org collects and repackages donated comfort goods for K-9 teams, ranging from cooling vests to toothpaste, and ships them to military bases at home and abroad.
Even a small donation goes a long way towards shipping costs and bulk purchases. Please go to our secure site https://supportourtroops.org/donate to make your tax-deductible contribution today!
If you wish to personally shop for America’s K-9 teams, go to our website https://supportourtroops.org/k-9-soldier-treats for a list of comfort items that are the hardest to get and most in demand by our troops.
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Ice Camp Queenfish (March 10, 2022): America’s mastery of the seas is constantly challenged in the Artic by an increasingly belligerent Russian Navy and Air Forces. Unsafe flybys, jamming radars, blocking GPS signals, and close encounters at sea are but a few of the provocative actions by Russia that have U.S. military planners concerned.
To better understand the threat, it is helps to know the geography involved. Russia is the largest of seven countries that border the Artic with a frontier of nearly 15,000 miles stretching from the Barents Sea in the west to the borders of Norway and the Bering Sea in the east. Economically, Artic resources account for up to 20 percent of Russia’s gross national product.
Russia blames NATO expansion for its more confrontational posture, but military planners fear these new, more hostile actions foreshadow a plan to control the northern sea lanes.
What Russia, and to a lesser extent China and North Korea, will soon realize is America has the world’s most sophisticated armed force, including a tough new airborne division, in their back yard.