Page 188 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
and almost certainly resulted in loss of life.23
The capability of a dog to save a life is ever-present as Search dog ‘Jervis’ showed when he was tasked to search the rear garden of a house in Belfast’s Ardoyne district. Jervis passed through the house working steadily and confidently without hesitation until he was put into a room under the stairs. This was a second search of this part of the house, but the first by a dog. Right away Jervis indicated at the rear wall panelling, where his handler discovered a small hollow, concealing a cache of explosives including two, one-and a-half ounce packets of NIGEX explosives and a single nine-millimetre round.24 The dog succeeded
where humans had failed.
Deployment to NI was unlikely to have been on
any dog handler’s wish list. In many respects the streets of Belfast and Derry looked much like streets the soldiers had left behind on the mainland but there was one distinct difference – home was safe. Somewhere that looked so familiar was, in reality, a battleground and where there was a call for courage. During early 2003, LCpl Matt Ball RAVC, and his Tracker were in pursuit of a terrorist in Belfast when, together, they stared danger in the face and survived as they approached the armed terrorist hiding in waste ground at the end of the track. Here LCpl Ball and his Royal Irish coverman held the terrorist until the Police arrived. LCpl Ball was duly recognised for his courageous actions and was awarded the Queens Commendation for Bravery in the NI Operational Awards of October 2003.
Although the policy was always TA personnel must not be employed in Northern Ireland there were instances where this was ignored on a few occasions. Captain John Bleby stood as the Veterinary Officer at Ballykelly and thus had sufficient NI service to qualify for the GSM with NI clasp, however initially his medal application was denied; on re-examination it was judged that regardless of any policy, he had actually been deployed offering operational benefit and he thus later received his award.
Many veterans would say that facing the uncertainty of potential dangers every day helped to develop their dark and often unintentional humour. Anything could spark this including confused communications, as one handler remembers from a search in Belfast: “It was a well-planned, covert search, it was so covert, in fact, that ‘Intel’ had no idea when it was to going to happen.” And, where there’s a dog there can
23 ADU NI documents dated September 1990.
24 Ibid.
25 ‘Friend or Foe’ by Ex RAVC Sgt, Mr Mick Playfoot dated November 2020.
be unexpected challenges, as another handler recalled: “My dog found it difficult to work as the house owner’s son had 25 loose rabbits running all over the search area!” Tracker handlers experienced difficulties too, especially when given an impossible task: “I was tasked to track gun smoke through a populated area!”
Things must have felt much the same (1979 – 1980) for RAVC Sgt25 Mick Playfoot, who found himself running a small section of two Wagtails, one Groundhog, and a ‘slack hand full’ of Snappers, which were commanded by the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment (2 RTR), the Resident Battalion of the small Garrison in Omagh. This area of Co Tyrone together with neighbouring Co Armagh was popularly and more accurately known as “Bandit Country” and anyone entering this territory did so with their life in their hands. Too high risk to travel by road, handlers working with Search and Tracker dogs in rural areas were forced to be supported by Lynx or Scout helicopters.
At early light one morning, Sgt Playfoot and his Search dog, ‘Ben’, were tasked to accompany the UDR on a routine search in a rural area near the Border. Only minutes into the helicopter flight to meet the search team on site, the pilot received a call and suddenly changed course. Over the headset, Sgt Playfoot was informed by the pilot that there had been a shooting and the RUC had requested a dog and handler to attend. As the conversation took place, the helicopter began its descent into the open field where the Sgt and Ben were to wait until a covert vehicle arrived to pick them up.
The helicopter drop was, as always, quick, and precise to avoid being pinpointed by the opposition. This time, there was not even time to say ‘thank you’ to the pilot, who was quite possibly heading for the Mess and a hot breakfast in Omagh barracks. As they sat waiting, they witnessed daylight appear through the ground mist, and Playfoot’s inner alarm triggered a sincere hope that the transport would arrive before they were totally exposed to the bandits. Then, out of the gloom, in a cloud of blue smoke, appeared a very sad looking ‘covert’ Ford Cortina! As it slid to a noisy halt, the rear passenger opened the car door and instructed the Sergeant to grab Ben and get in right away. Before the handler could say: “couldn’t you have found a better car?” the driver passed him a Civvie jacket to wear over his
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