Saving Private Sarbi

by Sandra Lee

  On 26 June 2009, Gus and his fellow EDDs Jasmine, Sam, Scuba, Kylie and Mick became the second platoon of pooches awarded the War Dog Operational Medal and Canine Service Medal in a ceremony at Robertson Barracks in Darwin, where 1CER is based.

  Tragically, Rafi, who survived two overseas deployments and everything the Taliban and anti-coalition militia could throw at him, died in 2009 soon after returning from Afghanistan. A venomous snake, type unknown, sank its fangs into him about the same time Sarbi was making headlines around the world.

  Wendy Upjohn and her family were told Rafi was bitten during the night. Had he been bitten during the day, his handler would have been in a position to take immediate medical action and it is highly likely the dog would have survived. Rafi was seven years old and had been in the army a little more than four years.

  In the years since EDDs Jasmine and Sam led the way for their canines-in-arms, five dogs have been killed in Afghanistan and at least two dozen have been deployed there. The courage and devotion of the hounds to their two-legged masters will never be forgotten.

  On 7 June 2011, the Doggies were honoured with the inaugural Military Working Dog Day at the RAAF base at Amberley, 40 kilometres south-west of Brisbane in Queensland. The event was endorsed by the Chief of the ADF, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, and George Hulse hopes it will become an annual event.

  The date was especially poignant as the event was held on the first anniversary of the deaths of Sapper Darren James Smith and EDD Herbie who were killed in action in the Mirabad Valley in 2010. Sapper Jacob Moerland was also killed in the enemy assault.

  Smith and Moerland were the first multiple fatalities suffered by the Australian Defence Force in a single operation since the Vietnam War, and the first deaths in 2010. Smith was the first Australian dog handler killed on the battlefield while working with his explosive detection dog.

  Sapper Smith had been an EDD handler since 2006 and had worked with two other dogs—Mandy and Buster— before taking charge of Herbie. Smitty had also represented Australia on Exercise Long Look in the United Kingdom, where he met the Queen. He loved the work and his wife, Angela, said later he was determined to improve the dogs’ ‘training and conditions’. Smitty was on his first operational deployment with the First Mentoring Task Force (MTF-1). Herbie, designated EDD 476, was a three-year-old rescue mutt. He was a handsome black and white border collie– husky cross with a patchwork of fulvous markings over his eyes and on his snout, ears, chest and legs. Smith and Herbie were attached to Mentoring Team Alpha. Like all the Doggies, they had successfully detected weapons caches and IEDs in the three months they’d been in country. In early June they discovered a large IED before it could take out a number of soldiers.

  Smith was a respected operator and instantly bonded with the men from Alpha, who were especially fond of Herbie. The mutt was treated like ‘one of the boys . . . everyone looks after him. He’s part of the family.’

  No official studies have been done of the psychological impact of the military working dogs on the personnel around whom they work, but when you listen to the soldiers talk about the hounds you realise that none, really, is needed. Just as it is impossible for dogs to reveal anything other than their true instincts when responding to the emotional emissions of humans, the same can be said for the soldiers when it comes to what the dogs mean to them.

  ‘[It’s] just great morale having [Herbie] around. Like you come back [from patrol] and you’re in a shitty mood and then there’s this dog,’ one soldier said, not feeling the need to further limn the emotional bond between hound and human or the feel-good ripple effect of a four-legged warrior.

  On the morning of 7 June 2010, Mentoring Team Alpha was en route to base after a successful dismounted patrol during which Herbie and Smith found a Pandora’s box of weapons in a local village. The blokes were hot and covered in dust. They were still a couple of kilometres out from the remote patrol base and hard at work, concentrating on completing the mission.

  Around 1100 hours Sapper Moerland spotted what he suspected was an IED. Moerland was regarded by his fellow Diggers as one of the hardest working members of Alpha and thought nothing of carrying a 40-kilogram pack when 20 kilograms would do. His troop commander once said, ‘If only we had a troop full of Snowys we would be unstoppable.’ He was known for his can-do fighting spirit, not to mention his extroverted personality, occasionally ‘disturbing fashion sense’ and a penchant for wearing aviator sunglasses. Moerland called for Smith and Herbie to take a look at the suspect item. Smith unleashed Herbie and told him to seek on. The well-trained dog went up and began sniffing. He stopped and stared, proving Moerland’s hunch right. Herbie’s response identified an improvised explosive device and Moerland and Smith put their drills into practice. Not for nothing did they wear the logo ‘Engineers out front’ on their shirts.

  The two sappers and Herbie were at the IED when Taliban insurgents detonated the roadside bomb by remote control. The explosion was so loud it was heard by other patrols more than two and a half kilometres away.

  ‘Even though it was one of many bangs that we heard, everybody knew that this one was especially ugly,’ journalist Chris Masters said the following night.

  The field medic raced in and performed battlefield treatment on Moerland, himself a combat first aider.

  ‘Arterial bleeding,’ came the call over the internal radio.

  That message was followed by the words no soldiers want to hear.

  ‘No vital signs.’

  Sapper Jacob Moerland, nicknamed Snowy for the colour of his hair, was killed instantly. He was 21, engaged to be married and had been in the army for three years. It was the only job he ever wanted to do and he was proud to serve his country, his family said in a heartbreaking statement days later.

  Within seconds another transmission was broadcast over the radio network.

  ‘EDD deceased.’

  Herbie was also killed by the massive IED.

  Unbelievably, Smith survived the initial blast. Heroically, the first thing he did was try to get back to work.

  ‘The first five minutes after it happened, Smith was trying to stand up and keep searching. He was trying to push everyone off him so he could keep doing his job,’ Corporal Jeremy Pahl said later.

  As Smith was being treated he spoke about his wife, Angela, and their two-year-old son, Mason. ‘He basically said he loved his family and he doesn’t regret anything. It was just amazing to know that this, this guy who honestly was, was in a bad way . . . everything that was going through his mind was family and friends.’

  A nine-liner medical evacuation call was transmitted over the communications network and minutes later two American Blackhawks arrived from Tarin Kot. Smith and Moerland were rushed on to the helicopters and the birds took off in a cloud of dust.

  The choppers were wheels down 38 minutes later. But it was too late. Sapper Smith died en route to the base hospital.

  Jacob Moerland and Darren Smith were the twelfth and thirteenth soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

  ‘Jacob and Darren were the epitome of the engineer motto “follow the sapper”. They died as they lived, putting their own lives at risk to ensure the safety of their fellow soldiers,’ said Major General John Cantwell, the commander of Joint Task Force 633, at a farewell ceremony at the JTF headquarters at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. ‘They truly are heroes who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service not only to their nation, but also to those with them on that fateful patrol.’

  Herbie was farewelled by fellow EDDs Harry, Bundy and Tank in a separate and poignant memorial service at Tarin Kot, where a photograph of the trusted dog and his handler was on display alongside the tattered remains of the dog’s search harness, with ‘Herbie’ embroidered in black. Harry, a regal-looking golden retriever, and Bundy and Tank, two scrappy black mutts with loads of character and spunk, sat beside a portrait of Smitty and Herbie for an official photograph for the army photographer. The image is a
striking yet tough reminder of the dangers the dogs and their handlers face in Afghanistan.

  ‘At the end of the day, Herbie saved lives,’ said Lieutenant Colonel John Carey, the commanding officer of 2CER. ‘The Regiment and Army will miss him—he protected us on the field of battle. He is gone, but will never be forgotten.’

  Herbie was cremated and his ashes returned to Australia and handed to Sapper Smith’s wife, Angela.

  ‘It’s nice to finally leave them both to rest together. He was protecting Darren and he paid the ultimate sacrifice as well for Darren and the innocent people who could have been injured,’ Angela Smith said. ‘Darren was a very loving husband and father, an absolutely remarkable human being. He was very passionate about his job and understood the risks involved but he was the sort of man who always put others first and did his best for them whether it was his mates in the army or at home with his family and friends.’

  The deaths of Sappers Moerland and Smith, and EDD Herbie, were a major blow to the battle-hardened Diggers at Camp Holland. The men’s names would be added to a memorial for fallen soldiers, but there was nothing to commemorate the loss of the four-legged soldier who fought alongside them. The Australian contingent wanted to build a fitting tribute as a permanent reminder of the sacrifices made by the explosive detection dogs and their handlers and erect it at Merlin’s Kennels, named in honour of the first of the five EDDs to be killed in Uruzgan.

  The memorial project had an enormous impact on all personnel in Tarin Kot, not just the Doggies: the men and women deployed to Afghanistan understood its significance and appreciated its symbolism. The dogs are a much loved and respected element of the task force for many reasons, both professional and personal, and the brass decided to move the memorial to a busy corner of Poppy’s Bar, the Australians’ recreation area. There it would be passed by hundreds of coalition and Afghan soldiers every day, a constant reminder of the life-saving and dangerous work undertaken by the Doggies.

  And so in early July 2011, a motley and lovable crew of thirteen canines then deployed with the Special Operations Task Group and the Mentoring Task Force in Afghanistan joined paws with their handlers and fellow soldiers for the official opening of the EDD and Handlers Memorial.

  The memorial features a polished metal board with two images in silhouette, one of a hound standing at ease and the other of a handler kneeling on the ground and shaking his dog’s paw, which was inspired by a photograph of EDD team, Raven and Sapper Nathan Cooper.

  ‘I call the photo “the bond”,’ said Corporal John Cannon, an experienced Doggie who completed a nine-month deployment in Uruzgan in 2011. ‘It symbolises the working partnership and mateship between dog and handler. There is a unique and special bond between the two—they are a team that shares the risks and puts their lives in each other’s hands. These teams save lives every time they uncover an IED or a cache.’

  Sapper Darren James Smith’s name and service number are etched on a small plaque underneath the image of the handler and dog with his regiment—2nd Combat Engineer Regiment—and the date of his death, 7 June 2010. The heartbreakingly tender words, ‘At rest from this world’, are inscribed in black lettering. Beside Sapper Smith’s plaque is another for EDD 476 Herbie, with the same date and regiment. A profound and apt tribute reads, ‘Side by side through dust and snow’.

  Plaques for the four doggies killed before Herbie hang vertically beneath the image of the dog standing solo, and each has the dog’s date of death, regiment and a poignant inscription that underscores the bond between human and hound.

  437 EDD Merlin, 31 Aug 2007, 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment: A true mate.

  409 EDD Razz, 21 Sep 2007, Incident Response Regiment: Mate till the end.

  452 EDD Andy, 23 Nov 2007, Incident Response Regiment: Duty done.

  472 EDD Nova, 23 Oct 2009, 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment: Always first.

  On 7 June 2012, the ADFTWDA and the RSPCA are due to unveil a Military and Service Working Dogs

  National Monument at the new RSPCA shelter in Brisbane. Half of the monument will be dedicated to Sapper Darren Smith and Herbie.

  EDD Merlin, whose body was buried at Merlin’s Kennels in Camp Holland in 2007, was eventually repatriated to Australia as his handler Pete ‘Lucy’ Lawlis so desperately wanted. A lot of work and quiet but very determined diplomacy, orchestrated by Lawlis and other hard men dedicated to serving their country, went on behind the scenes to get the fallen four-legged Digger home to Australia, like his comrades. Merlin’s remains are now buried under a tree in the backyard of the Lawlis family home in New South Wales. Pete ‘Lucy’ Lawlis has retired from the Australian Army.

  Most of the dogs that returned from deployments to Afghanistan continue their dangerous work. A few have retired due to old age.

  Sergeant D and the eight other soldiers wounded with him in the Taliban ambush in Khas Uruzgan on 2 September 2008, all returned to operational duty, though some have since retired from the army.

  Small bits of shrapnel still work their way out of Sergeant D’s body, a constant reminder of how close to death he came. A piece of RPG frag remains lodged behind his knee; the doctors fear removing it could be more dangerous than leaving it where it is. His body armour was sent for a series of comprehensive tests to determine how it saved his life. Sergeant D is just glad it did.

  The seasoned soldier has a few souvenirs of his life-and-death battle with the Taliban. He kept the Nomex gloves he wore during the ambush and a bottle of shrapnel picked from his body by the surgeons in Afghanistan. The G-SHOCK watch he wore on his left wrist is still ticking, albeit with a few nicks in the hardware. In the aftermath of the ambush, Sergeant D had a new tattoo added to his collection of body art. The tattooist worried about drilling ink on scar tissue but the Doggie wasn’t bothered about decorating the Taliban-caused disfigurement. A tribal tattoo now covers his left shoulder blade and creeps around and down his left arm, over the scars he scored in Khas Uruzgan. The new artwork complements the ferocious-looking dog he had inked on his bulging right bicep early in his army career, an image borrowed from the Live to Ride motorcycle magazine. Soldiers love their tatts.

  In 2011, at the age of 35, Sergeant D deployed to the other side of the world for his fourth rotation in Afghanistan.

  Sarbi was tucked up safely in the kennels at the SME in Holsworthy where the trusted nine-year-old had started her distinguished army career six years earlier. She is helping train new explosive detection dog handlers and setting a stellar example for the hounds while she waits for Sergeant D to return from his rotation. When he does, Sarbi will receive brand new rules of engagement.

  Her next mission is to protect Sergeant D’s fiancée, Kira, and Vegas, an older dog that, like her, is a retiree from one of the most dangerous and selfless jobs in the world.

  If only they could talk.

  Notes

  PROLOGUE

  ‘snake-eating rebel’

  Kevin Connolly, ‘McChrystal in the line of fire.’ BBC Online, 22 June 2010

  ‘big-ass meal’

  Toby Harden, ‘Interview: General Stanley McChrystal’, The Telegraph (UK) 23 March 2010,

  ‘about right’

  Kevin Rudd, interview on CNN, 21 September 2009

  ‘red cards’

  Patrick Walters, ‘US to urge for bigger role for Diggers—More Afghan for troops’, The Weekend Australian, 22 August 2009

  ‘yak with youse all’

  Malcolm Farr, ‘Rudd visits Diggers: PM’s food for thought’, The Herald Sun, 12 November 2009

  CHAPTER 1

  ‘well-proportioned triumphs of modern hairdressing’

  Konrad Lorenz, Man Meets Dog (translated by Marjorie Kerr Wilson), Routledge Classics, London and New York, 1954, p. 89

  CHAPTER 2

  ‘Here Lies and Watches Wagner’s Russ’

  Stanley Coren, The Pawprints of History: Dogs and the Course of Human Events, Free Press, New York, 2002, p. 112 />
  ‘Dogs! Must I be defeated by them . . .’

  Stanley Coren, The Pawprints of History, p. 19

  CHAPTER 3

  ‘play is serious business . . .’

  Stanley Coren, How to Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication, Free Press, New York, 2000, p. 148

  References to how dogs move and respond were drawn from various books cited in the bibliography and more closely from Stanley Coren, How To Speak Dog and Alexandra Horowitz, Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know, Scribner, New York, 2009.

  CHAPTER 4

  ‘there is no domestic animal which has . . .’

  Konrad Lorenz, Man Meets Dog (translated by Marjorie Kerr Wilson),

  Routledge Classics, London and New York, 1954, p ix

  ‘human companionship has become . . .’

  Alexandra Horowitz, Inside of a Dog, p. 64

  CHAPTER 5

  Much of the material about canine–human communication, how many words dogs can be taught, and the story of the boastful German dog trainer is drawn from Stanley Coren, How to Speak Dog (particularly Chapter 3) and Stanley Coren, Why We Love The Dogs We Do: How To Find The Dog That Matches Your Personality, Fireside, New York, 1998.

  ‘Emotions allow each of us . . .’

  Patricia B. McConnell, For The Love of A Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Dog, Ballantine Books, New York, 2007, p. 11

  CHAPTER 6

  ‘The RSPCA dog is like the Aussie soldier . . .’

  Susan Oldroyd, Army: The Soldiers’ Newspaper www.defence.gov.au/news/armynews/editions/1077/topstories/story07.htm

  ‘. . . 40,000 horses . . .’

  M is for Mate: Animals in Wartime from Ajax to Zep, Department of Veterans’ Affairs and The Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 2009, p. 16

  ‘One messenger dog, working with the Fourth Division Signal Company . . .’

  M is for Mate, p. 8

  The story about the three-dollar mongrel liberated from death row is told by an Australian Vietnam War veteran and dog handler, Peter Haran, Trackers: The Untold Story of the Australian Dogs of War, New Holland, Chatswood, NSW, 2000.