Dog Soldiers: Love, loyalty and sacrifice on the front line. Isabel George

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СКАЧАТЬ knew Ken Rowe. We had lived with him over the past four months at Bastion and shared work time and down time in his company. Some of us had known him longer than that. We had been with him, off and on, since his early days at the Defence Animals Centre (DAC) at Melton Mowbray and his first posting to Northern Ireland. The fact that someone had just told us that the handsome, cheeky Geordie lad was gone and his body was due in from the front line was totally unbelievable.

      ‘I tried to believe it because the certainty of what had happened meant that we had a job to do and we were only going to do it well.’

      A communications lock-down prevented the identity of the man down getting to the media and therefore the family before the Army could reach them in person. But there was still a fallen soldier on the ground.

      Only twenty-four hours earlier Kenneth had called for a situation report. As part of the 2 Para battle group deployed from FOB Inkerman he was finally seeing the action he had been hoping for since he landed in Afghanistan on 18 March.

      He had been assigned to a regiment that had seen and was still seeing some of fiercest engagements and the highest losses of the conflict so far. Every fighting unit over there wanted a dog and handler team alongside them; this was exactly what Kenneth was out there to do with his dog alongside him.

      Never a lover of vehicle searches – although he would always do a stint on the gate – Kenneth was happier away from the patrol and search role at Kandahar Airfield and was soon firmly embedded with 2 Para at FOB Inkerman. The Paras took to his dog partner then, Diesel, too, and maybe too much as Kenneth often had to remind them that he was a working dog, not a playmate! A difficult call when home comforts are in such short supply.

      Through April and May 2008 the dogs and handlers had to get used to moving around. The demand was constant and came from all bases: Kabul, Kandahar, Sangin, Inkerman, Kajaki, Musa Qala, Lashkar Ghar, Combat Logistic Patrols and Camp Bastion. It was a huge operation to manage, as R and R (Rest and Recuperation) was as important to factor into the mix as deployments if combat fatigue and the stress of being constantly posted from one situation to another were to be kept at bay.

      While Kenneth had been at Kandahar and then FOB Inkerman, Sasha had been fighting her own war against the Taliban at Musa Qala. Lance Corporal Marianne Hay had trained her well and with Sergeant Andy Dodds Sasha had become the RAVC’s most capable search dog at the time. She was hot property, but no one would have grasped that from just looking at her.

      Small, slight, fine-boned and pretty – that was Sasha. A lovely creamy-toned yellow Labrador with the sweetest nature but with high drive and nerves of steel. Dog soldier Marianne Hay had trained Sasha as a bomb dog in Northern Ireland. The pair had been the last Army dog team to leave the Province when the Army Dog Unit relocated to North Luffenham in 2007, but Marianne had used their time there to add a few skills to Sasha’s CV. While the girl and dog team had successfully supported the police and the engineers there, Marianne had also worked hard on preparing Sasha for ops in Afghanistan. Sooner or later she knew her dog would need it.

      It’s an Army dog’s life and a dog soldier’s one to bear that the team that works together does not always stay together, and this was a hard truth for Marianne. She had formed a strong bond with Sasha but she had also prepared her well for theatre (action on the front line) and brought her on to the point where she could hit the ground running. And run she did.

      Sasha was deployed to one of the most dangerous places in the world at the time; Musa Qala was known to be a hotbed of insurgent activity, and fighting was desperate and fierce. The Taliban considered the town to be their spiritual home and they wanted to take it back. Danger lurked on every corner, in every house, and on every street. Its labyrinth of underground tunnels that ran beneath the community hid a multitude of sins and sinister activities. It was the place where any arms and explosives search dog, even one of Sasha’s calibre, was going to be challenged.

      In no time at all Sasha was notching up ‘find’ after ‘find’. It had been designated a ‘high-activity’ area and Sasha’s skills were proving that classification was justified. Hidden weapons, mines, mortars, motors for rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests … the list was endless. Sergeant Dodds felt safe working with Sasha, the dog who was earning herself a reputation: ‘If it’s hidden, Sasha will find it.’

      Kenneth already knew Sasha was highly skilled. He had served with Marianne in Northern Ireland and the competitive friends had often verbally sparred over training techniques. Both were passionate about their dogs and there was mutual respect for each other’s skills. It was what they were there to do but the work was intense and achieved in temperatures that could hit a relentless 40–50 degrees during the working day. The soldiers could look forward to going home on R and R, but the dogs were doing it all to be rewarded with a tennis ball, a meal and, if they were out in the desert, a good rest alongside their handler. The dogs were soldiers the same as the handlers – but the rewards were different. It was the ability to maintain the high drive to work and search without wavering in efficiency and success that put Sasha in a class of her own.

      Sasha was holding her own against the heat and the workload. It was the height of summer – the period recognised as the ‘fighting season’ – with just 14 dogs to service regiments operating in seven locations. Everyone was under pressure. IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) were now the preferred weapon of the Taliban and just weeks earlier Ken and Diesel had been thrown from an Army Snatch Land Rover. Ken crawled out of the overturned vehicle covered in dust but unhurt; Diesel had injured his paw in the explosion and was taken back to Bastion for treatment and rest.

      While Diesel recuperated, Reece became the dog in Ken’s life, but it wasn’t long before the dynamic duo were back on the front line protecting and saving life and limb.

      Andy’s new role was imminent and Kenneth was writing about going home but he was still waiting for confirmation of the date. Trouble was, with everything that was going on, the chances of it happening were looking increasingly slim. The intensity of the work was starting to show on Diesel and Ken had to report his concerns to his Sergeant Major, Frank Holmes. Diesel was seeking shade, and not just when he was on his downtime. He knew his dog was a tough cookie who had survived IEDs and being thrown from a Snatch, but if he was fading in the heat he would fail to detect. It was time for Diesel to take a rest.

      And that was how Ken Rowe and Sasha came together. Ken needed a good reliable dog, and Andy was heading for a new role of Ops Sergeant, leaving Sasha up for grabs. Matching the right dog with the right handler in the right location wasn’t Ken’s decision but he put in a request for Sasha anyway. Frank Holmes felt it was a good match and Martyn Thompson headed out to FOB Inkerman to deliver Sasha to Ken. Moving the dog was considered easier than moving the man – all they needed was the change of dog for the intense weapons and search work ahead. It wasn’t long before they were considered the best team in the area at the time, and Sasha continued to locate weapons, ammunition and IEDs, giving Ken plenty to call in to his commanding officer.

      By the time Ken’s July leave was confirmed, he and Sasha had been supporting 2 Para for over a month and the pair were very much part of the team. It had been a particularly hazardous operation from the start and it was taking its toll on the troops. The new threat, suicide bombers, had taken the lives of three of their men. Until then small-arms fire and the RPG had been the insurgents’ weapons of choice but the arrival of the IED and the suicide bomber had made the fighting game more sinister and blurred the rules of engagement. It made the job of the dog and the soldier harder, too.

      Ken was happy that Sasha was still providing consistent cover even during operations that could last ten to twelve hours in searing temperatures. She was just as enthusiastic as she had been on her first day, which meant Marianne Hay’s training and the dog’s own determination and intelligence were paying off. The bond that Sasha and Ken had formed in the relatively short time they had СКАЧАТЬ