Rebecca’s War Dog of the Week: So Long, Farewell, Lucky

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, January 6, 2012 - 7:28 AM Share

By Rebecca Frankel
Chief Canine Correspondent

It was almost exactly this time last year when we met Lucky, a MWD who lived up to his name having survived two bouts with cancer and who, at ten years old,  was just gearing up for his fourth deployment. Sadly, while on tour in Kyrgyzstan last August, just five days before their deployment was set to end, Lucky's handler noticed another tumor growing on the dog's hind leg. It would be the third and final round for the seasoned war dog, who died stateside in September. As Maj. Garon Shelton put it, cancer was the ‘only battle he would lose.'"

In a memorial service held yesterday at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, Washington, soldiers paid tribute to their squad's fallen canine, a Belgian Malinois whose bright eyes and floppy ears belied the dog's tougher, working side. Those paying their respects remember Lucky as cool under fire, incredibly fast, and ultimately fearless. "'He could take anyone down to the ground,' Major Shelton said during the service."

Lucky came to Fairchild AFB in 2003 and during his many years of service he worked with a total nine handlers, served 5 tours (which included Iraq and Afghanistan), worked on a number of details for govt. officials and was "called out on 31 emergency events locally, including bomb threats." His claim to bomb-sniffing fame came while deployed in Afghanistan in 2008, when he uncovered some C-4 planted on a generator.

The Spokesman-Review, a local Spokane publication, covered Lucky's story over the years. In addition to some great photos there's also a 2010 video of Lucky running drills with his then handler, Staff Sgt. Gerald Martinez -- the pair had just completed a tour in Iraq. It seems there was more than one handler on base hoping to adopt Lucky when he was ready to retire from service. "He's just a big kid," Staff Sgt. Martinez said at the time, grinning sheepishly. "He's just a big goof ball."   

USAF

EXPLORE:REBECCA'S WAR DOG OF THE WEEK, NORTH AMERICA, MILITARY
 

CHARLES IN AMERICA

12:38 AM ET

January 7, 2012

Another good MWD

Not much to say... I still love our MWDs

 

AKHTER

2:46 PM ET

January 7, 2012

good

This story that came out in the Times of London a couple of weeks ago is truly a war-dog wonder: parachuting dogs being sent on secret missions in Afghanistan. (The photograph is pretty unbelievable, too.)

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/04/09/rebeccas_war_dog_of_the_week_its_a_bird_its_a_plane

PHOTO:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/files/parachuting%20dogb.jpg
Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, April 9, 2010

By Rebecca Frankel
Best Defense Chief Canine Correspondent

These daredevil dogs (and their handlers) are part of Austrian special forces that are "[joining] Nato's Operation Cold Response, one of Europe's biggest military exercises, in Narvik, Norway. ... Commandos from 14 countries, including British special forces and Royal Marines, took part in the Nato exercise. The use of dogs in High Altitude High Opening missions was pioneered by America's Delta Force, which trained the animals to breathe through oxygen masks during the jump."

Dropping from 10,000 feet in the air these dogs "glide in" to land "unnoticed" and they "often carry cameras and are trained to attack anyone carrying a weapon."

I'd be curious to speak to a veterinarian about this but the dog handler interviewed for this piece claims that:

Dogs don't perceive height difference. ... They're more likely to be bothered by the roar of the engines, but once we're on the way down, that doesn't matter and they just enjoy the view. ... "It's something [this dog] does a lot. He has a much cooler head than most recruits."

After a little digging, I found this is hardly the first time the military -- in the United States or elsewhere -- has attempted to get its war dogs airborne.

The November 1935 issue of Popular Science Magazine ran an article about the Soviet army was experimenting parachuting dogs out of planes with a new invention -- the "cylindrical coop," which was:

provided with a parachute that opens automatically when it is tossed from a plane. The shell of the coop, locked closed during the descent, springs open of its own accord when the device strikes the ground."

In 1980, The Ocala Star Banner, ran this story about how the army was training a "crack corps of 40 German shepherd dogs" who were accustomed to jumping off 8-foot towers so that they "would be able to withstand the rigors of parachute jumping."

But perhaps most famous of all is the legendary SAS Rob, a collie and parachuting war-dog hero of WWII. Rob was awarded the animal's Victoria's Cross in 1945 for saving British soldiers' lives by "licking their cheeks to wake them at signs of danger" and for making a remarkable 20 parachute jumps. But in 2006, this amazing parachute-jumping lore was revealed to have been a hoax. Apparently, when the dog's owners requested Rob be discharged and returned home, the dog's SAS handler, Tom Burt, was said to have been so "upset at the prospect of losing him" he concocted the story to keep Rob in the regiment. Can we blame him?

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Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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