DOG DAYS

(The following story was told to me by a forty year veteran military/ civilian policeman named Sergeant W. and I will write it as if he were speaking).

Did you ever wonder how effective police dogs really are? Is the service they perform really necessary? How are they bonded to their instructors? Dog handlers are the only ones who feed and water their dogs. When a handler is transferred to another assignment, a different handler attempts to feed and water the animal but at first the handler is barked and growled at if he/she attempts to do so. Eventually the dog realizes it must let the new instructor feed and water it or it will die of thirst and starve. Finally, the new handler takes over and wins the confidence of that dog and they become a team.

I was stationed a Cam Ranh Bay in 1970 and one night we got a call that a fight had broken out at the NCO Club. I had no idea how many were involved in the fight. A group of soldiers from different units, watching a floor show and drinking heavily may spark morale but it is also a recipe for serious contention. I was the ranking sergeant in charge, so I called for three two man squads and we drove over and brought our shotguns with us. We seldom ever really used our guns but they often were intimidating and could get a crowd’s attention, unfortunately they could also be taken and used against us. When we arrived, the building was full of everyone inside, about 350 men,brawling with each other, like something out of a movie scene. Six cops with shotguns, for show, could not handle it, besides rules of engagement demanded that every step be taken to avoid loss of life.

I called dispatch and told them that we were not going into that group until they sent over ten patrol dogs with their handlers. Dobermans tend to be unstable so we used German Shepherd dogs. They were trained only to attack on command and would bite and hold legs or arms. It is surprising how a crowd of drunken rioters will curse and battle cops with nightsticks but those same rioters are terrified of attacking dogs. We came in, the six of us and the dogs and handlers, from separate entrances.

One rioter was up on a landing and challenging anyone to pull him down but when he saw the dog snarling, baring his teeth and coming his way, he got down on his own and begged the handler to pull the dog back on his leash. Once the crowd saw the dogs, they began to give up by the dozens. We arrested all 350 people and brought them over to the base hospital where their wounds were dressed under guard. We then processed them through and confined them to separate group lock up rooms, with patrol dogs at the ready.

Several of the rioters were pretty beat up but nobody died. Patrol dogs have saved many lives and we used them often for crowd control, enemy recon, drug sniffing and sentry duty.