Photo By Master Sgt. Brock Jones | Sgt. Jess Storie, a native of Claremore, Okla., a combat engineer who serves as a dog...... read more read more
By Staff Sgt. Brock Jones
Multi-National Division - Baghdad
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – Dogs have long been known as "man's best friend."
In recent years, dogs have also become the Soldier's best friend, taking on the dangerous duty of finding weapons and explosives in the combat zones of the Middle East with their keen sense of smell, in the hopes of finding and eliminating them before Soldiers "discover" them the hard way.
Sgt. Jess Storie, a native of Claremore, Okla., who serves as an off-leash dog handler with 94th Engineer Detachment out of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., currently attached to Multi-National Division – Baghdad, and Jose, his black Labrador retriever, spend their days front and center in the constant battle to eliminate dangerous weapons before they can be used to hurt or kill unknowing civilians and Soldiers.
"Me and Jose have been together just a little over a year. This is our first deployment together," said Storie. "He was a green dog when I got him so this is his first deployment also."
Storie, a combat engineer by trade, is in his third deployment to the Middle East and was involved mostly in raids and route clearance during his first and second deployments, respectively. He heard about the opportunity available to engineers to be involved in the specialized search dog program and jumped at the chance to be involved in a job that few Army Soldiers get the opportunity to do.
"When this program popped up, I was at Fort Hood and it took me a year and a half just to get to Fort Leonard Wood to see if I could qualify to get into the dog program," he said.
Getting into and qualifying for the SSD program is not a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there is a very rigorous and demanding training process that both dog and handler must go through to be able to work in the equally rigorous and demanding world of an Army off-leash dog handler.
"You go through a selection process to even be considered to be a dog handler," said Sgt. 1st Class John Harmon, a native of Great Falls, Mont., who serves as kennel master, 94th Eng. Det., MND-B, at their field-expedient kennel on Camp Slayer. "It's pretty intense."
"Once they're accepted [into the program] they come to the kennels at Fort Leonard Wood and go through a week-long training process where further we weed out whoever can't be a dog handler. Once that's done, they go to Lackland Air Force Base for a four-and-a-half month training with the dog."
Once dog and handler graduate the course at Lackland, they return to Fort Leonard Wood for another month or two of training before they go through a validation process.
"If they pass the validation, they are certified for one year," said Harmon.
Following certification, there are quarterly validations that the Soldier-dog teams must pass, in addition to six hours per week training they must conduct.
"Part of the specialized search dog program is a 'one dog, one handler' concept where once you train with that dog and certify with that dog, you're the only one that can handle...or work that dog whatsoever," said Harmon.
The reason for the tough training and certification process and for maintaining the strict relationship between Soldier and dog is obvious when one understands the dangers involved for both dog and handler in searching for hidden weapons and explosives.
"We work off-leash so you've got to have a better bond with the dog working out at distances anywhere from 100 to 200 meters. The dog's got to be able to trust you and you've got to be able to trust the dog," said Harmon. "That's why the biggest focus is on spending time on building up that rapport, that relationship."
On a recent mission in Baghdad, the months of training and living together paid off not only for Storie and Jose, but members of the MND-B unit they were attached to.
"We got out of the vehicle and I was somewhere in the middle. The commander's humvee was somewhere up front," Storie said. "First thing we did was search around the commander's Humvee...There was a pipe laying there on the ground and the dog showed some interest so I pulled him back and moved the Humvee back and got [explosive ordinance disposal experts] to show up. They picked it up and...it had wires sticking out of it and they assumed it was an improvised explosive device.
"After I did that immediate sweep, we found two more artillery rounds there laying on the ground, laying out in the field not 15-20 meters from where we found the IED that was right by the commander's Humvee."
After EOD was able to take care of the IED and the artillery rounds, the unit Storie and Jose were riding with was able to continue their mission without major incident. A potential disaster had been averted and the training and long hours had paid off in priceless dividends – lives and continued health of Soldiers.
"When he finds something, I don't really honestly know how to explain it," said Storie about Jose. "We continue to train daily, mission or not, we still train. So when you find something, it definitely feels like all the hard work that you put into it is paying off."
"It's a really satisfying job."
The missions are arduous and taxing on Storie and Jose and other SSD teams as there are only seven dog teams that support the entire area of Baghdad and the outlying province.
Both Storie and his "best friend" Jose find great satisfaction in what they do as teammates on the battlefield, relying on each other's strengths to sniff out dangers and save lives.
| Date Taken: | 01.20.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.20.2009 12:49 |
| Story ID: | 29060 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 193 |
| Downloads: | 152 |
This work, Soldier, best friend sniff out danger, save lives, by MSG Brock Jones, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
