Dogs for Defense Corps

Transcription

1 Dogs for Defense (1) On 13 March 1942, the Quartermaster Corps began training dogs for the Army s K-9 Corps. The phrase K-9 Corps became a popular title for the War Dog Program in the 1940s. Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American Kennel Association and a new group calling itself Dogs for Defense mobilized dog owners across the country to donate quality animals to the Quartermaster Corps. Dogs donated by the public to the Army saved the lives of many soldiers in combat.

2 (2) In the beginning, more than 30 breeds of dogs were accepted. Later, the list was narrowed to five: German Shepherds, Belgian Sheep Dogs, Doberman Pinschers, Farm Collies and Giant Schnauzers. First estimates were that only about 200 dogs would be needed, but that soon changed. Dogs for Defense worked with qualified civilian trainers, who volunteered their services without pay, to train dogs for the program. As the need for these dogs increased, training responsibilities were transferred to the Quartermaster Remount Branch. This branch had years of experience collecting and training horses and mules. Dogs for Defense continued its highly successful campaign to get donations of dogs. In Autumn 1942, the program was expanded to collect and train dogs for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard as well. Eventually, these branches collected and trained their own dogs. (3) The first War Dog Reception and Training Center was established at Front Royal, VA, in August Additional centers operated by the Quartermaster Corps were located at Fort Robinson, NE; Cat Island, Gulfport, MS; Camp Rimini at Helena, MT; and San Carlos, CA. Small, temporary

3 training centers were set up at Beltsville, MD, and Fort Belvoir, VA, to train mine detection dogs. This task was later transferred to San Carlos. (4) Well over a million dogs served on both sides during World War I, carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and providing some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers. The most famous dog to emerge from the war was Rin Tin Tin, an abandoned puppy of German war dogs found in France in 1918 and taken to the United States, where he made his film debut in

4 the 1922 silent film The Man from Hell s River. As the first animal movie star, Rin Tin Tin made the little-known German Shepherd breed famous across the country. (5) In the United States, the practice of training dogs for military purposes was largely abandoned after World War I. When the country entered World War II in December 1941, the American Kennel Association and a group called Dogs for Defense began a effort to get dog owners to donate healthy and capable animals to the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army. Training began in March 1942, and that fall the QMC was given the task of training dogs for the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard as well. (6) The K-9 Corps initially accepted over 30 breeds of dogs, but the list was soon narrowed to seven: German Shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman Pinschers, collies, Siberian Huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo dogs.

5 Members of the K-9 Corps were trained for a total of 8 to 12 weeks. After basic obedience training, they were sent through one of four specialized programs to prepare them for work as sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. In active combat duty, scout dogs proved especially essential by alerting patrols to the approach of the enemy and preventing surprise attacks. (7) The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who served with the Army s 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog, Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender. The wounded Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart all of which were later revoked due to an Army policy preventing official medals for animals.