US Civil Unrest

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yes OME, the most common cause of a dog failing the seeing eye test is if they can ignore other dogs or not.

In the war, US dogs were recruited by the army and many failed because of their fear of loud noises.

I do know that many fail as sheepdogs because they don't circle far enough around the flock to keep it together.

I wonder about police dogs... they may want some aggression in them. Once in ww2, Eisenhower gave an army  dog a medal ( the dog had attacked a german machine gun emplacement) and the dog bit him.

I reckon the lack of smart usage of dogs is good evidence that Australia had very poor military leadership.

[nomadpete]

That last dog sure was smart enough to know that a politician is the enemy!

[onetrack]

We were using dogs for finding mines and VC and enemy food and explosives caches in SVN in 1970. One of our officers when I was in the RAE, was personally responsible for the training of the Engineers dogs.

His name was George Hulse, and his rank in 1970 was Captain. He retired as a full colonel. Hulse went to the U.S. in 1970, to learn about military dog training.

Another Engineer of note, who pioneered military dog use in Korea, was John M Hutcheson, who with the rank of Lt Col., was CO of SME at Casula when I was there in 1970. Hutcheson also retired as a full Colonel.

 

Dogs were used as messenger dogs in WW1, as scout dogs in WW2 and as mine-sniffing dogs in Korea. They were used in Afghanistan. Dogs have always been involved in Australian Military efforts.

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/82/article-four#:~:text=Tiber was one of 11,age of about 10 months.&text=After being airlifted by helicopter,scent of the retreating enemy.

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/aussie-and-the-military-working-dog-scuplture-circling-into-sleep

 

https://www.aussiewardogs.org/content/media/documentation/Capt John M Hutcheson MC.pdf

Edited August 27, 2020 by onetrack

[willedoo]

Military dogs have been big business over the years. The U.S.S.R. had the Red Star Kennels, the state-operated organization to breed and supply military and police dogs. They bred a dog called the Moscow Water Dog. It was intended to be a rescue dog; to swim out and help a drowning person. The problem with the Water Dog was that it would swim out and start to bite the victim and nearly drown them in the meantime. It's now an extinct breed.

 

I've long had a theory as to what happened to all the Moscow Water Dogs. During WW2, the supply of lambswool for the lining of pilot leather helmets was interrupted and didn't resume for many years after the war. So during the war and right up to the late 50's, Soviet winter flight helmets were lined with dog fur. When you look at photos of the dark curly hair on Moscow Water Dogs and compare it with the fur in those helmets, it's a pretty good match. So my theory is that the Water Dogs all got the chop and were turned into flight helmets. Of course over the years there's been the inevitable jokes about Russian pilots having fleas.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Good onyer onetrack. That is the best defence of Australias military leadership I have ever heard.

BUT... My uncle Jack was on a patrol out of Milne Bay in WW2. He was nearly killed by a tree-borne sniper. And the dog that should have gone ahead to sniff out the sniper? He was not there. That's why I reckon our WW2 generals were worse than stupid.

Did you ever see the movie " saving private Ryan?" well in reality half of those groups had dogs and the dog-lots had half the casualties. But it was only the Us army that used dogs fully at that time.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

The second were the germans... did you ever see a movie where they crept up on a sentry and quietly killed him? In reality, those sentries all had dogs.

[Old Koreelah]

4 hours ago, willedoo said:

Military dogs have been big business over the years. The U.S.S.R. had the Red Star Kennels, the state-operated organization to breed and supply military and police dogs. They bred a dog called the Moscow Water Dog...

Wherever you get all this Russian stuff Willedoo, keep it coming!

[onetrack]

It would be virtually impossible to sneak up on a sentry with a dog. Dogs are alert to even the slightest strange noise. They will go berserk at the sound of footsteps, even light ones.

 

I can recall our Sgt, an AATTV Veteran, telling us about a platoon of American troops camped in the jungle while on patrol, in the mid-1960's.

 

The sentry went to sleep, and the VC sneaked in amongst the sleeping Americans, and dispatched 13 of them with knives, before one bloke woke up, and raised the alarm.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Interesting thing about sleep...  you are safest in a group where some are unable to sleep properly or at all. Those soldiers were all young and had worked hard I guess.

[willedoo]

The protesters are still at it; they're certainly not getting cold feet:

 

 

Edited September 9, 2020 by willedoo