OUR WAR DOGS
G'day folks,
Dogs have been used by the Australian Military since WW1,
where they were used as messenger dogs. In
WW2 they were also used as messenger dogs, as well as tracker dogs. During the Vietnam War they were used for
tracking, Engineer mine & explosive dogs by the army, as well as asset
security dogs by the RAAF.
The training of the dogs was carried out at the Infantry Centre
in Ingleburn NSW. Eleven of these highly
trained dogs were sent to Vietnam where they served from 1967 until 1971. They served for three years, being shared
with the different battalions as they rotated through their tours.
A Tracker Team usually consisted of two dogs and their
handlers, two cover men; one a machine gunner and one a signaller. When required for duty they would be
choppered in and inserted and removed from the jungle by being suspended from
the helicopter in a special harness. The
dogs enjoyed these chopper trips, loving the fresh air and escaping from the
hot and humid conditions below in the jungle.
Their service to the troops was invaluable, being able to
sense the enemy long before any human could, tracking enemy, hiding or
retreating after being wounded. The sad
part of this story is that the dogs could not be returned to Australia after
their time was up because of Australia's strict quarantine laws, as was the
case with the horses which served us so well in the First World War.
Homes were found with European families living in Saigon
for 10 out of the 11 dogs left behind. One dog, Cassius died of heat exhaustion
after a training run. In 2001 a memorial
to these dogs was unveiled at Alexander Headland on Queensland's Sunshine Coast
where the dogs names as follows are listed -
Cesear,
Janus, Justin, Juno, Marcian, Milo, Trajan, Cassius,
Julian, Marcus and Tiber.
These
words are also inscribed on the Memorial –
Clancy's comment: Unsung heroes. Love ya work!
I'm ...
Fly over for our military dogs!
No comments:
Post a Comment