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Deployment Quarterly |
Deployment
Quarterly
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DEPLOYMENT:
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It's a Dog's Life by kelly sharbel
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Preparing for deployment requires long hours of individual and unit training to hone skills and enhance cohesion and capability. Maintenance must be performed on equipment to ensure it will withstand the rigors of deployment. On a personal level, servicemembers must tend to numerous administrative details to make sure pay gets deposited in the bank, bills get paid and family members have access to military facilities and available support organizations. One special group of about 1,400 servicemembers doesn't worry about their pay or their families. Their training remains arduous and maintenance necessary, but personal preparation is limited to getting their coats properly treated to repel insect infestation and receiving immunizations to prevent infectious diseases to which they might be exposed. This small, some would say elite, and critically important group of servicemembers are the military working dogs who deploy with their handlers to help provide security for their two-legged counterparts or use their keen sense of smell as part of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts overseas or counter-drug efforts at home. Military working dogs can deploy anywhere human servicemembers can go. Adaptability to diverse climatic and environmental conditions is one reason Belgian Malanois and German Shepherds were chosen as the predominant breeds in this service, says Department of Defense K-9 Program Manager Bob Dameworth. Among other attributes, they are also known as breeds with exemplary character. "These breeds were also selected because they are courageous," Dameworth adds. "They are brave dogs." Like their human colleagues, the dogs' training and skills are matched to mission requirements. Today, Army and Air Force military dogs are deployed in the Balkans and in Southwest Asia, serving as sentries and explosives detectors. In other missions, they may also be called upon to support the U.S. Customs Service or Drug Enforcement Administration in counter-drug activities and even the Secret Service when extensive President travel or a presidential political campaign overwhelms that agency's own four-legged assets.
Like their human colleagues in uniform, military working dogs and their handlers are on call 24 hours, seven days a week. While they don't have to worry about whether direct deposit will get their pay checks into the bank, their deployment preparation is physically strenuous as dog and handler work together to improve conditioning, enhance skills and blend together as one potent and significant asset. In addition, deployment preparation involves a strict routine medical process to protect the dogs against the greatest threat to their health — insects and other pests that could cause serious, if not fatal, disease. "The main things we have to worry about are the insects and parasites that may be indigenous to a particular region," says Dameworth. "The veterinarians determine how to deal with that problem." The dogs' deployment preparation actually begins before a decision to deploy them is made. They receive prescribed, routine, year-round medical care designed to prevent or detect health problems before they become acute. "The entire process for our dogs has been developed to keep up with what is going on with them medically," notes Col. Larry Carpenter, director of Department of Defense Military Working Dog Veterinary Services. "These dogs are like athletes. They can shrug off minor problems but minor problems can accumulate. We want to head off problems before they become serious." To achieve that goal, the dogs receive physicals every six months and are immunized against infectious diseases annually. They also receive monthly treatments to prevent heartworm. Topical flea and tick control treatments are applied each month. Every year, veterinarians also take a serum sample from each dog to track the dog's health over time. Those samples are saved for comparison to assist in diagnosing any subsequent illness.
Based on the health data collected during preventive care, the veterinary service gives each dog a deployability classification that reflects the animal's military readiness. There are four classifications: available for worldwide deployment, available for restricted deployment, temporarily non-deployable and not deployable. "The classification system for deployment status was developed based upon actual experiences from previous deployments," explains Carpenter. "It is a way of getting a medical estimate of whether the dog is physically capable of completing the mission." A dog's medical condition gets closer scrutiny when the dog and his/her handler are notified that they are being deployed. At that point, the handler is responsible for getting his four-legged teammate a departure physical examination, having his/her preventive medications updated, and getting any additional immunizations necessary to protect the dog against diseases indigenous to the area to which the two will be deployed. For example, the handlers of dogs deploying to the Balkans receive a supply of doxcycline capsules to give for daily protection against tick-borne infection, which is a particular concern in that region, according to Colonel Carpenter. The handlers also receive a supply of the monthly preventive medications with which to treat the dog while deployed. When they arrive in-theater, the dog receives another physical from an in-theater veterinarian. This preventive monitoring process ensures that handlers and veterinarians have a thorough knowledge of the dog's medical condition up to the actual deployment. Unfortunately, those comprehensive steps do not lessen life-threatening risks such as biological and chemical warfare agents that may be encountered because there is no individual gear such as gas masks and Mission Oriented Protective Posture equipment for dogs. However, dogs receive the same treatment as humans if they are exposed to biological and chemical agents.
As thorough as current medical treatment of military working dogs is, the veterinary science community is conducting research aimed at gaining an even better understanding of the effects of different types of environmental exposures on deployed military working dogs. Maj. Dawn Harris, Chief of Epidemiology in the DoD Military Working Dogs Veterinary Service, is heading a team studying the 118 dogs that deployed to the Gulf region for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After the war, the veterinary services office made a special effort to ascertain the medical condition of each dog at the time of death. The last Gulf War canine veteran died in May 2001. Harris' team is currently working on a clinical analysis of the medical conditions that affected the dogs. The analysis is still a work in progress, but when finished, will include a comparison of the causes of death of the dogs. The team hopes the information will lead to further improvements in their health care in future deployments. Handlers who work with the dogs every day attest to what remarkable animals military working dogs are, and those who have worked with them in combat testify to their courage under even the most adverse circumstances. In return for their valiant services, the veterinary services office is committed to providing the most effective force health protection for this small but highly effective component of the U.S. military services. |
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