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Doggies’
style on Op Anode
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Lapping
it up with a bit of down-time on Red Beach, Guadalcanal. The
EOD Dog Detachment (EDD) handover between 1CER and 2CER in
April formed the largest deployment since the teams were formed
in 1981. EDDs (from left) Kylie, Digger, Jeb, Bolt, Aussie,
Bob, Clyde and Mandy.
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By
Leut Aaron Matzkows
THESE dogs are dynamite.
In fact, they’re explosive – the Army’s Explosive Detector
Dogs, on duty in the Solomons with the Operation Anode Regional Assistance
Mission Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
Hot on the scent since the teams were formed in 1981 after the Sydney
Hilton bombing two years earlier, the eight dogs and their handlers
made up the largest number deployed abroad at any one time.
The occasion was the handover between 1CER and 2CER teams at Red Beach,
Guadalcanal. Two handlers had returned to Australia before the official
handover.
The present team in the Solomons is a composite section from 2CER,
Brisbane, and 3CER, Townsville.
They arrived in the country in April for a four-month rotation, with
previous deployments having been three months.
EDD team leader, Cpl James Hoy, told Army from the section’s
base camp in Honiara the dogs’ main job is seeking out explosives
and improvised explosive devices, weapons and ammunition.
“On Op Anode, their primary role is the detection of illegal
small arms believed to be cached throughout the country,” he
said.
Their other tasks are varied.
“They include cordon and search activities in support of the
Police, searching baggage and freight on domestic and international
flights to deter weapon smuggling and searching government buildings
in Honiara, particularly the Magistrates’ and High courts before
the arrival of prisoners.”
The dogs have produced some outstanding results with 57 operational
searches in the first 62 days of their deployment, and have travelled
across the country by land, in helicopters and Cariboux and in watercraft.
As well as their operational role, Cpl Hoy said they perform at demonstrations
across Guadalcanal and Malatia in a public awareness education program
to show the RAMSI search capability and the “no guns or else”
policy.
One important success has been the dog Bolt unearthing a small number
of military rounds hidden at the domestic airport.
The dogs and their Engineer assistants are frequent fliers. The EDDs
fly in Hercules aircraft to Honiara from RAAF Amberley, a journey
of four-and-a-half hours.
But they have been further in the past.
They have travelled longer distances around Australia and their battle
honours include Somalia and East Timor.
Australian author Peter Haran has made famous the outstanding work
of the Infantry’s tracker dogs in Vietnam and before the formation
of the EDD Section, the Engineers had a mine dog capability.
A total of 11 EDD teams have been deployed on separate rotations in
the Solomons since the first lifted his leg there in July last year. |
