Page 39 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
inspection being conducted by the Garrison Commander, who visited the kennel compounds accompanied by the CO, Training Officer, and WO in charge of the kennels. It was the moment when he saw his first Rottweiler, loose in the compound. The dog was very large and apparently very bad tempered. To make matters worse, it had honed a routine of barking and snarling while flying straight at the chain link fence between itself and the visiting party! The Inspecting Officer, in jovial mood, advised the dog not to behave like that to a senior Officer! For some unknown reason, the dog, now frothing at the mouth, decided to take his behaviour to the next level and tried to scale the fence. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful, but when the Inspecting Officer, having recovered his composure, turned to make comments to the accompanying members of staff – he found himself standing alone. Everyone else had disappeared!31
Sennelager 1990s:
During the mid-1990s the DASU was starting to provide handlers in support of Operations in the Balkans, as well providing farrier support to Bosnia as a way of improving the care of working horses. The demand for students provided by the Unit for Germany and Bosnia was high, along with bids for specialist dog support to SOTAT and the RMP. The Unit was very busy providing support to ‘escape and evasion’ exercises which were held in both central and southern Germany. The trials included individual handlers on a six-month attachment to the International Long Range Reconnaissance School. There was also the idea that dogs could support not only Combat survival, but also Patrol type courses for interna- tional students once again. The Unit also hosted members of the US Army who were in Europe on a dog purchasing trip. They stayed in Sennelager for two weeks, which provided an opportunity to observe their training and evaluation processes.
A tour in Sennelager was, if you wanted it to be, a chance to test human endurance. And in the early part of 1994, ‘in a moment of sheer lunacy’, LCpl Dave Dingsdale applied to attend the Inter- national Long Range Reconnaissance course held in Bavaria and faced the dubious pleasure of learning that he had passed the arduous entry test. The test was run over varying terrain and led to the challenge of surviving avalanches and the delight of snacking on edible fungi! On the first day, dressed like nomads in makeshift woolly hats, gloves and carrying a wide variety of
homemade bergens, the competitors came across the first stretch of deep-frozen snow where they were paired-off and tasked with navigating, using a homemade compass, on a night exercise. The following day, after another short trek, they had to slaughter enough food to last them another seven days – a rabbit and a chicken had to suffice.
What came next was the ‘isolation phase’ which meant three nights with no other human contact where time went slowly; and dreams, for Dave Dingsdale, were of Mars bars, Big Macs, and cold beers! Emerging from solitary, the next phase was an untimely capture ahead of being placed in stress positions for a long period before being released again only to run the gauntlet of the RAVC dogs and trainers sent to find them. Maybe it was insider knowledge, or just plain luck, but Dave successfully evaded his Corps colleagues. However, that wasn’t the end of the exercise as there was another twist to the day.
Recaptured, blindfolded, and put into the back of a truck – the interrogation phase started in earnest – complete with white noise, repeated interviews, and exposure to the cold, sleep deprivation and near starvation. Seeing the dogs’ excellence from a very different viewpoint32 was probably the best way of fully understanding what it was like to be hunted down by the RAVC dogs on Exercise.
The RAVC assisted in the Rhine Army Summer Show (RASS) at Bad Lippspringe most years. The Unit always ran a ‘Pimm’s bar’ as well as a very popular Bratwurst stand. It was normal for equestrian events to take centre stage along with plenty of other activities to keep children amused over the four-day show which had developed over the years into a large Anglo-German event organised by the British Army. Year-on-year the attractions became more and more spectacular, drawing in the crowds from miles around.
[Sadly, the RASS was forced to cancel in 2001 due to FMD.]
The end of BAOR:
It was reported in the summer of 1994 that after nearly 50 years in which the abbreviation BAOR became synonymous in military circles with Germany itself, it was no more.
On 1st April 1994, BAOR became United Support Command (Germany). Sadly UKSC(G) did not have the same ring and did little to enhance the short title of the unit at Sennelager, which then was in its 49th year of existence, as UKSC(G) DASU RAVC.
31 Chiron Calling December 1991.
32 Chiron Calling Summer 1994 extracts from ‘In a moment of Sheer Lunacy’ by LCpl Dave Dingsdale RAVC.
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