Page 449 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
CHAPTER 27
The Birth of 1st Military Working Dog Regiment
– Royal Army Veterinary Corps: Strength in Diversity Vires in Varietate
The Operational demand for RAVC Military Working Dogs (MWDs) since the Balkan Wars in the 1990s and the Second Gulf War (2003 – 2011), put a strain on the Service that by 2002 was unsus- tainable. During May 2002, HQ Land Command initiated, on behalf of the RAVC, a staff paper outlining the Corps’ Operational Requirements for Increased Manning.1 The paper summarised the Operational case for an enlarged establish- ment in the RAVC.
On 26th March 2010, the Corps celebrated the formation of 1st Military Working Dog Regiment (RAVC). A unique regiment with a unique place in military history.
Demand and supply
The Report put forward the case in two parts; the first part looking at the manning requirements for Operations that the RAVC was involved in at the time. This was expressed as the most urgent issue. The second issue, which had also reached a critical stage, was concerned with the identification and establishment of actual requirements for RAVC personnel to support Medium and Large Scale War Fighting Operations. It was the Medium Scale requirements that would drive the Unit Estab- lishment action within Land Command.
What made this situation so grave was the matter of numbers: the RAVC Dog Trainer (DT) cadre numbered only one hundred and eight posts, staffed to ninety-two personnel. Recruiting was not a problem – the issue was retention. At that time, many soldiers were completing a six-month tour, and then returning to training for six-months before going on another six-month tour. This was an intense cycle and, understandably, caused a loss of personnel. The manning of Veterinary Officers was twenty-one and Veterinary Technicians twenty-six respectively.
Operational Commitments placed seventeen
DTs on tour in the Balkans and Afghanistan, with twenty-eight DTs posted on residential tours to Northern Ireland (NI). Posts were gapped in the Balkans and ten posts in NI, which should have been RAVC, were filled by E2 handlers. One VO and two VTs were serving in the Balkans. However, the Corps had to cover additional tasks such as Military Aid to the Community, directed or routine training tasks and other Operational commitments from time-to-time on the mainland. HQ LAND should have manned all seventeen DT posts, however with only sixteen DTs this was clearly not sustainable, and the DAC had to reinforce. This was an Army Training Recruitment Agency Unit and their role was to train MWD handlers and MWDs. The inability of LAND to fill the posts, meant that personnel were being removed from the DAC, reducing the output of trained dogs and soldiers.
It was calculated to meet the then baseline, an additional eighty-five DT posts were required and an extra five VOs and five VTs. It was proposed that the RAVC liability (previously known as estab- lishment), would be increased incrementally over a three-year period. Even though the Operational imperative suggested an early resolution was required, it was accepted that to improve inter-tour intervals, and consequently retention, it was hoped to increase the liability gradually during 2003 and 2004. Manning achieved through the uplifts would be distributed between 1 DASU and 101 MWD Sp Unit, with rank structures incre- mentally increased.
The Executive Committee of the Army Board (ECAB) endorsed the first tranche (twenty-two posts) of additional RAVC manpower during the autumn of 2002 and the establishment staffing process was completed and took effect on 1st April 2003. 1 DASU at Sennelager and 101 MWD Sp Unit at Aldershot, become front-line providers of MWDs in support of worldwide Operations.
1 LAND/Med/8000 dated 17th May 2002.
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