LOP BURI, Thailand – U.S. Army Soldiers from the 520th Military Working Dogs Detachment, Hawaii, worked alongside Royal Thai Army soldiers and Thai military volunteers in collaborative learning exercises to train, practice, and develop military working dog techniques and operations during Exercise Hanuman Guardian 2023.
Hanuman Guardian is an annual, bilateral army-to-army exercise hosted by the Royal Thai Army with elements from U.S. Army Pacific. HG is designed to improve humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities and enhance mission readiness and interoperability between the two armies while improving the quality of life in rural areas.
The Thai Military Working Dogs Association and U.S. handlers teamed together to conduct live explosive ordnance disposal joint exercises.
“The U.S. helped demonstrate what to do and not to do on missions which gave us some new techniques on how to utilize our dogs better,” 2nd Lt. Saravut Suntonsuk, Thai military dog trainer said. “For today, our mission dealt with EODs where we let the dogs go searching to locate explosives so that our EOD staff can take over to dispose of them properly.”
Sunstonsuk works alongside his dog Aimbot, a two-year-old Belgian Malinois specifically trained to patrol and search for explosive devices.
Last year, RTA soldier dog trainers had the opportunity to visit the 520th MWD in Hawaii and run joint training operations stateside.
HG23 has allowed the collaborative training of both military working dogs between forces to continue, this time rotating the training environment to allow for the U.S. Army military working dogs to practice adapting to new operational settings and situations under RTA experience and guidance.
“It’s been really interesting; they keep a lot of their tactics similar to ours,” U.S. Army Cpl. Angela James, handler, 520th MWD said. “When we are comparing and contrasting, it's really cool because we naturally mesh really well. I ran a training lane with them, and it was practically like working with our own army. I’ve learned a lot about their military culture … and how similar the dogs and techniques we use are.”
James works alongside her three-year-old Belgian Malinois, Leon. Leon has been a part of the 520th for only eight months.
According to James, alongside other younger dogs like Aimbot, Leon benefits greatly from the opportunity to train alongside dogs and handlers with different training backgrounds and levels of experience.
During the training, live explosives were used to allow this exercise to mimic as close to a potential real-life situation as possible. Veteran military working dogs like Borro, a six-year-old german shepherd led by handler U.S. Army Spc. Matthew Pipper, 520th MWD, helped guide the exercises with experience but still developed new skills to perform his duties better.
“It’s been fun, the language barrier is a bit hard, but we’ve realized they are normal soldiers just like us and we have the same views toward our excitement on working with our dogs,” Pipper said. “It’s been exciting working with them and seeing light bulbs go off in everyone's heads when we’re sharing ideas. It's awesome to see that connection work.”
All participants in the exercise reflected on how invaluable the day’s operations were for both honing in on their own training as well as learning new skills and practices to better their operational capabilities. The day’s EOD joint exercise is part of a larger training mission for the military working dogs, who will also use the opportunity in Thailand to practice tactical patrol techniques, repelling, combat care, tracking, and other mission-essential training.
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2023 08:23 |
| Story ID: | 449296 |
| Location: | LOPBURI, TH |
| Web Views: | 110 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, US Army, Royal Thai Army Military Working Dogs team up for joint training exercises, by SPC Paul Blythe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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