MINE DETECTION DOGS
Mine detection dog Jim and his handler search a route in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan.
(Photo courtesy of A Company, 1-504th Parachute Infantry Regiment)
Mine detection dog Hershey and her handler searching for buried explosives along a creek bed in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. (Photo by US Army 1st Lieutenant Jeffrey Vlietstra, 49th Engineer Detachment) 32
Counter-IED Report, Autumn/Winter 2012
rapidly, and because of its tremendous success and the operational need for working dog teams, an MDD handlers course was established at Fort Leonard Wood through the US Army Engineer School (USAES). As a result, the 49th Engineer Detachment was stood up on 17 October 2005, establishing a purely mine dog unit. The first military mine detection dogs deployed to Afghanistan at the end of 2004. Their sole responsibility at the time was to work with manual deminers for the mine clearance and expansion of Bagram Air Field. One of the largest military
bases in Afghanistan, Bagram was once occupied and protected by Soviet armed forces and is considered one of the most heavily mined areas in the world. Since arriving in 2004, as the only mine dog unit in the US military the 49th Engineering Detachment has maintained a constant presence in Afghanistan, and in May 2010 added another squad of teams to assist the Mine Action Center in Regional Command South as they worked to demine Kandahar Air Field, as well as continuing operations at Bagram. Soon after military operations began in Afghanistan, another explosive threat emerged that posed considerable risk for soldiers. The improvised explosive device (IED) soon became popular with the enemy, who was changing his tactics of making and emplacing these as fast as coalition forces could adapt. However, the one thing the enemy could not change was the explosive and the odour it emits. Dogs soon joined the clearance patrols in search for these hidden killers, searching routes and areas all over Afghanistan. Mine dogs have always proven to be a successful area reduction tool for mine fields in low-threat areas with only a low concentration of mines. Most mines have a much smaller explosive odour than the typical IED, so locating only an 18-kilogramme (40-pound) charge is relatively easy for mine dog teams. One of the biggest advantages of dog teams in the counter-IED (C-IED) fight is the standoff distance. The length of the