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

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СКАЧАТЬ their patrols.

      Twenty-four hours before he was due to go on leave, Ken Rowe put a call in to Bastion for a situation report. The handler who was due to replace him was sick. This wasn’t the news he was hoping for and it wasn’t good news for 2 Para either. Ken didn’t like the thought of the patrol going out without the support of a search dog. They were in bandit country and everyone was very much aware of the value of having a dog on the ground. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave them. He lobbied his unit to allow him to stay until the changeover could take place. Then he could go on his R and R with some peace of mind.

      His request to stay on was granted.

      Throughout that fatal day the patrol had been shadowed by a group of insurgents. Sasha was already known to them; they were aware of the ‘yellow dog’ and her ability to locate their deadly weapons. She must have foiled hundreds of their plots and discovered tons of explosives and ammunition and it was no secret that having a bomb dog on duty reassured the troops.

      The patrol was just three kilometres from FOB Inkerman when the enemy struck from three angles. As Ken and Sasha made for the roadside ditch, Sasha was blown off her feet – she had been targeted by RPG direct fire – and separated from Ken. Eyewitnesses reported that the brave dog rose out of the dust, shook herself down and ran towards her handler. Ken gathered her in to take cover with the others behind a low wall but a second RPG found them both. Man and dog fell together.

      The exchange was fast and furious, with visibility restricted by the gun smoke, dust and debris kicked up by the enemy RPGs. In the kind of silence that creeps in when the battle subsides came the cry:

      ‘Man down! Man down!’

      The medic was already rushing to where Ken lay on the ground. A stretcher appeared alongside and the bearers lifted Ken swiftly and cleanly into it with Sasha’s body at his side. It was a race against time to get them both to an area of safety before the team was spotted and picked off by an opportunist sniper.

      Out of the chaos a Land Rover screeched to a halt. It was out of sight but just hearing the urgency of the engine was a comfort of a kind as the stretcher was hurried in its direction. ‘Come on, lift! Let’s go, go go!’

      The Land Rover took off in a cloud of dust in the direction of FOB Inkerman, with everyone on board hoping they were still dealing with a casualty and nothing worse. The vehicle was jolting from side to side trying to cope with the scattered rocks which littered the dramatic rough terrain. Everyone was holding very tight onto their precious cargo.

      Suddenly the vehicle lurched and Sasha slipped from the stretcher. The loud gasp from the back alerted the driver to a problem but it was too risky to stop and Ken had to remain their priority. It was clear he needed urgent medical attention. They already feared when they loaded her onto the stretcher that it was too late for poor Sasha.

      The enemy was still out there and no doubt watching every move. They would have seen Sasha’s limp and lifeless body lying stranded and out of reach. The men could not risk more casualties: they had no choice but to leave her.

      Frank Holmes and Martyn Thompson waited at the hospital in Bastion for the helicopter bringing Ken in from Inkerman. They knew what they had to do when it arrived, but right at that moment, as Frank says, it was the constant stream of casualties that added to the fear and trepidation:

      ‘The Paras had had another bad time of it and, from what I can remember, there seemed to be a whole lot of casualties pouring off the choppers. It must have been a hell of a day and I admit it was quite unnerving sitting there wondering what devastation we still had to go through.’

      Frank heard another Chinook arrive and hoped it would be the one they were waiting for and for this part of the proceedings to be over.

      Frank and Martyn went in to ID the body. They confirmed that it was Lance Corporal Kenneth Michael Rowe RAVC.

      ‘As I looked at Ken lying there, I know it sounds odd, but a part of me was relieved that I could honestly tell his mother, when I called her in the next few hours, that he looked as if he was sleeping. As for the rest of it – I could not possibly explain.’

      The Union Flag was lowered to half mast at Bastion. Sadly this was something that was happening more often during the summer of Op Herrick 8, but for the men and women of the RAVC’s dog soldiers it was something they hoped they would never see for one of their own during the conflict. They hadn’t lost a dog soldier since The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

      ‘When a soldier is lost, the flag is flown at half mast and I could not believe that this time it was lowered for one of mine,’ recalls Frank Holmes. ‘I now hate flagpoles. What made it worse was the constant repeats on Sky News, and the added loss of Sasha extended the coverage and the agony for all watching. We thought of Ken’s family, lovely people, who would be mourning their son. Believe me, the grief at Bastion and FOB Inkerman was palpable.’

      Martyn Thompson was hearing major concern from the men and women in his command over the retrieval of Sasha. He was able to tell them that he had said, ‘Bring the dog if you can,’ but everyone was fully aware of the risks. The area was crawling with Taliban, making it impossible to return to the site without risking a life or limb. What Martyn and his colleagues didn’t realise at the time was that the men of 2 Para had already made a silent promise to each other that they would reach Sasha – no matter what.

      Moving in, under the noses of the Taliban, they lifted Sasha’s body off the road and returned her to Inkerman. They said later that Ken’s dog was regarded in the same way as her handler, as one of their own, and there was no way they were going to leave her alone or where she lay. It was a risky mission; the Paras were aware that the enemy would be watching and expecting the soldiers to return for their dog. For all they knew they could have been walking into an ambush or the body could have been booby-trapped. Undeterred by the obvious risks, the men brought Sasha in and handed her back to her family: the RAVC.

      When Marianne and the others heard what the Paras had risked for Sasha, tears flowed: ‘I had been tasked out to an Operation in FOB Gibraltar (FOB GIB), which was 10 to 15 km from where Ken was based at FOB Inkerman. It was known to be a risky area. I was with 3 Para and we were due to go on a task early in the morning. The plan was to leave really early in the morning before the light came up so we could move to positions before the enemy could see us.

      ‘The helicopter dropped me at FOB GIB and got my admin squared away before we all tried to get some sleep. It was early but we also knew we had to be up early. No surprise that it took me forever to get to sleep. I remember just curling up on the sand with my helmet as a pillow and finally managing to drift off. Ironically, once it was dark someone woke me up and I was like, “Oh, for f***’s sake, it’s time to go already?” But the guy just said, “Boss wants to see you.” Straight away I knew someone had deffo been hurt.

      ‘So I went. Quickly. “Look, a handler and his dog have been hit.” My body became heavy and my mind raced … Who? What? They said they had little info but it was an RPG attack. I wanted to know who it was.

      ‘They told me I could go through the sit rep/9 liner (situation report) that had been sent to see if could find a ZAP number. I was scrolling through the whole thing and the first listing that caught my eye was the last four numbers of Sasha’s Service number. I was, like, no f***ing way has she been hit. Then I scrolled down more and more and there it was – confirmed. Then I saw Ken’s ZAP number.

      ‘At this point I was just skimming. I was sure they were just injured. Then I saw “KIA” in what seemed massive writing. I clocked it again. KIA – Killed in Action. I felt like I had had my guts ripped out completely. I felt СКАЧАТЬ