Page 432 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
which Unit was on Tour. E2 handlers were often unfit, untrained or did not possess a valid driving licence and sometimes their behaviour was far from satisfactory. But just as there were examples of the unsatisfactory, there were many high quality E2s who integrated well and experienced great success. OC 102 MWD recorded his thoughts in his Op record as: “If the TMWDSU is to stay at the forefront of Force Protection and Force Multi- plication it must be manned by the appropriate personnel and the right combination of MWDs. This will not be easy and may require considerable flexibility with imaginative and novel solutions to difficult problems, but that is the reason the RAVC exists to support Operations.”
102 MWD Sp Unit trained and deployed both Veterinary Technicians, Cpl Craig Woodall and LCpl Michaela Cleary to handle VS dogs – the logic being that their day job was not that busy and, particularly with finite resources available, all hands needed to be put to work. Both handlers generously accepted the training with no fuss and both proved their handling skills on different occasions.
VS dog teams were required to ‘stag on’ the front gate, not as barrier technicians but to search each vehicle before it was granted admission in to SLB. However, given the dangerous task, the handler was always sent forward on their own to complete their duty with over-watch provided by armoured cover men who were equipped with all manner of weaponry and cloaked in a Sangar or watch tower well out of harm’s way. Meanwhile, the VS VTs searched vehicle after vehicle to the point that the dogs were quite jaded.
As the OC, Chris Ham, recalled the situation: “I vividly recall Michaela Cleary being badly bitten on her shoulder by a more than stroppy Labrador as she hoisted it, into the cab of a lorry. Her injury was obvious as the wound was bleeding and she had no choice but to return to the Unit to be patched-up by the very able Veterinary Officer Ros Edlesten.
Sadly, Michaela’s dog had struck once too often and, reluctantly, it was decided that he should be returned to Germany. Fortunately, Michaela had started to team with another VS dog, but her injury meant that it was several days before she could license with her new companion. LCpl Clearly wasn’t pleased and insisted that she be assessed and hopefully licensed immediately so that she could return to her duties. Within a couple of hours of the assessments and countless vehicle searches within camp, Michaela was once
again acting as a bomb stopper for SLB.”
Another proud moment for the VTs of 102 occurred within the first few weeks of the deployment. When Cpl Craig Woodall deployed on an SF Strike Op with his VS dog, he was searching a vehicle when he informed the RE searcher that his dog had indicated inside the vehicle up-and-under the dash board. The RE searcher found nothing, however, Cpl Woodall insisted that the RE soldier check again and, again
the soldier found nothing.
Cpl Woodall was now livid, as he knew his dog
well, and so encouraged another thorough search of the area and, lo and behold, two loaded pistols were discovered. As he had not been completely happy with the original search, he then went to search inside the property and on entering the house the dog indicated. ‘Woody’ informed the search team who said they had searched the area and found nothing. Once again he insisted they take another, closer look and, just as before, the handler’s diligence and perseverance paid off. This time the find consisted of five AK47s.
One evening on the ‘bird table’ brief, the Commander briefed that due to cigarette smuggling by civilian truck drivers the Kuwaiti Customs were very likely to shut the border to UK supply convoys. The drivers were conveying essential supplies from Kuwait to SLB and then returning with immense supplies of illegally procured cigarettes. The impact of the border closing would have created a disruption in daily supplies that would have been catastrophic but, worse than that would have forced the need to re-route the convoys via more treacherous areas, exposing them to the growing threat of IEDs.
As OC TMWDSU, Major Ham put forward an instantly plausible solution. After the ‘O Group’ he spoke to the Commander and suggested that the convoys be searched by a MWD prior to departure from SLB – a trained dog would locate the smuggled goods. The grateful Colonel agreed immediately but wondered how long it would take to train a dog and bring it from Germany, given the imminent concerns. Chris Ham explained, optimistically, that given the magnitude of the issue he would convert an AES dog that had become gun shy (due to being involved in an explosion), and have it trained in two-three days ready for the Colonel’s evaluation on a live demonstration.
LCpl Keily Osborne RAVC was set the task to re-train the selected dog and she was supported by the OC who concealed packets of illegal
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