Page 195 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
eye-catching posters and simple card drops inviting units to: “Try Trackers” were left around busy Ops Rooms in an attempt to persuade Commanders to trust in the low-maintenance, low-tech, highly loyal option. Their eagerness to use Army Dogs varied, but even the most ardent critic was usually sold after one good ‘find’, as one handler and his Wagtail proved on 19th June 1980, when the IRA hijacked a tipper lorry near Dungannon in County Tyrone and abandoned it in Lurgaboy Lane.
The lorry had been packed with over 1000lbs (455kgs) of explosives and was just sitting there when ATO and an ADU NI handler with his Wagtail (AES dog) were called in to examine what epitomised a highly suspect vehicle. A detachment from the local Army Unit – 2nd Queen’s Regiment – answered the call to the cordon off the area while the clearance operation took place. It took the Wagtail just a few minutes to locate the lorry’s deadly, hidden cargo: concealed under the lorry’s legitimate load were 10 milk churns containing 100lb (45kgs) of explosives, command wires and other pieces of detonation equipment. Judging from what was found and where the load was abandoned, it appeared that the devices were destined to be placed inside a culvert close to a known military route. The courage of the ADU soldier and his Wagtail, working in partnership with the ATO team, undoubtedly saved lives as a catastrophic explosion was averted.38
The value of integrating a dog capability with the role of Units such as the Royal Engineers’, Counter Terrorist Search Wing (CTSW) at Chatham, could never be underestimated in the Province. The Unit undertook a commitment to provide an RAVC AES handler to accompany the Engineers to all High-Risk training completed by them whether in rural or urban settings. Troops had a lot to absorb, not least the Commanders. It was critical that RAVC personnel made themselves accessible to troops in order to keep them fully aware of dog assets, how to use them correctly and the pros and cons of having a dog on Ops. Often seeing was the only way to believing that, in many circumstances in the Province a dog could often be a soldier’s best friend and most reliable weapon.
New Capabilities
It was out of necessity that new dog capabilities came to the fore during the Troubles.
The concept of the Vehicle Search (VS) dog was first developed in Northern Ireland in 1991. Before then, AES dogs took on the role and on overseas
duties, such as on the Hong Kong-Sino border, Sweep dogs were deployed to search vehicles for illegal immigrants at border crossings. By the 1990s, the huge volume of vehicles crossing the border from Eire to NI made the introduction of the VS dog capability an absolute necessity. The need to search individual vehicles thoroughly created serious traffic build-up at security check points which manifested in major irritation in the relationship between civilian drivers and security force personnel. The need for rapid, accurate search capability covering all modes of transport sparked the concept of using the highly driven Springer spaniel as the ideal breed for the VS role.
Authority was granted to procure and train two Springers – ‘Stick and Dick’. Sgt Colin Offland RAVC, was tasked to train the dogs, alongside their handlers, which he did with his usual vigour and talent, and shortly the teams were licensed for operational use. On his first search, one of the dogs located concealed, but legally held, shotguns, a success that proved the worth of the VS capability and delivered the perfect public relations message to the wider Army in the Province – as well as the terrorist community. Unsurprisingly, with such a robust advertising ploy, the dogs saw more and more work and, subsequently more teams followed Stick and Dick into training. The introduction of the VS dog came out of an urgent need to solve a security threat and then quickly integrated into ‘normal’ day-to-day search routine. The difference the VS dogs made was having the ability to conduct quick effective searches at known danger points, such as at barrack entrances where large volumes of passing traffic presented a high risk. VS dogs provided an effective extra layer of protection for military personnel and civilians in NI and went on to prove their worth in Iraq and Afghanistan.
From the mid-‘90s talks of a ceasefire produced other perhaps un-foreseen problems for soldiers with increasing time on their hands. And once again, the dogs’ skills came to the rescue.
A concerning side-effect of the normalisation process was the change in soldiers’ mindset to ‘stand down’ time. As the pressure of duties eased, it became clear that many of the ordinary soldiers were dabbling with recreational drugs in their increasing spare hours. What was mostly invisible during day-to-day life, was otherwise a very real problem. In a full-on effort to thwart drug use the Unit introduced a tough home grown deterrent – two Drug dogs. The dogs, posted to the ADU in the spring of 1994, were in the capable hands of RAVC trainers LCpl Martin Pashley and LCpl
38 Northern Ireland: An Agony Continued: The British Army and the Troubles 1980 – 83 by Ken Wharton.
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