# Rawah Iraq Bomb Dogs and Handlers 7.25.07



## Shooter

The bomb dogs and handlers are rotating out and they ask if I would take a couple of pictures before the team was split up and everyone went thier seperate ways. They have been here for 6 months and are one of the best groups of young men I've had the pleasure of working with in a very long time. I will miss them. None of them will be going home, just moving to different sites. Hopefully much safer and better living conditions.



God Bless, Shooter


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## Guest

God Bless them, and God Bless You, for all that you do!

On a lighter side, here is my favorite bomb dog pic.


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## Shooter

LOL, thats a great picture. One of the dog handlers has that hanging in his hootch


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## Koru

Shooter, that's an awesome photo. Tell me something, do they take the dogs with them, or use and train local dogs? I'm thinking the former.

rosesm


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## Shooter

They go through training with the dogs before they are put into service. The dogs are very well taken care by the handlers and even sleep with them in there hootches. The dogs are never left alone. There is always someone with them 24/7. The dogs are treated better than I seen a lot of people treated. 

Because of the heat over here the dogs only work a max of 6 hours a day with many breaks during that time frame. The hot, dry, sandy climate highly interferes with the dogs ability to smell. I've watched the dogs and handlers work many times. The handler can tell if his dog is having problems and will call in another dog team to help out. As you can imagine the price of missing an explosive could be devastating if it got into a military camp. 

Two of the dog teams went through training in Japan and the other two in the United States. Once teamed two gether the two will never be seperated. When the handlers tour is complete the dog will go with him to his next assignment.

Sorry to be long winded but I'm bored today ;-)

Shooter


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## Gator_Nutz

Great photo and narrative of how the dogs and handlers coexist. What happens to the dogs when say for instance, the handler gets out of the military altogether? Do they just go to a new handler or do they get to get out of the service too and go home with him?


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## Shooter

They go back with them and under go new training with their new handler. More of a get to know the new guy thing and watch what I can do is what one of the handlers told me. One of the guys told me that his dog trained him. Some of the dogs are duel trained as attack dogs also.

Shooter


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## Texas T

*Here is how close*

Killed in Iraq, dog team buried together



By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 24, 2007 6:38:59



The first military working dog team killed in action together since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were laid to rest together July 18.

Cpl. Kory D. Wiens, 20, of the 94th Mine Dog Detachment, 5th Engineer Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and his partner, Cooper, were killed July 6 by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Muhammad Sath, Iraq. They had been in Iraq since January.

The cremated remains of Wiens and Cooper, a Labrador retriever, were buried together at Salt Creek Cemetery in Wiens' hometown of Dallas, Ore., at the request of his family, said Master Sgt. Matt McHugh, the family's casualty assistance officer.

"Kory referred to Cooper as his son, that's now much of a team they were," McHugh said.

McHugh added that based on his own research, the last military canine team to be killed together was during the Vietnam War.

The Army has 578 dog teams, and they have served several hundred rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Hans Freimarck, the military working dog coordinator for the Army Dog Program.

Freimarck said he didn't know the last time a canine team was killed together, but Wiens and Cooper were the first for operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

"Most military dog handlers look at [their relationship with their dog] as a marriage," Freimarck said. "You give to the dog, the dog gives back to you. Every dog handler has a firm attachment to his dog and any dog in the military."

Wiens and Cooper made up a specialized search detachment trained to find firearms, ammunition and explosives. Being on a specialized search team means more training, and Cooper, who was no more than 4 years old, did his job without a leash.

Cooper was Wiens' first military working dog, and Wiens was Cooper's first handler, McHugh said.

Wiens' family is doing as well as can be expected, and their small community has been very supportive, McHugh said.

Residents of Dallas lined the streets to honor the funeral procession, which was accompanied by local law enforcement vehicles and the Patriot Guard Riders, a national organization of motorcycle enthusiasts who pay tribute to fallen service members.

Thirty-seven dog teams from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and area police departments attended the service, McHugh said.

Wiens was named after his grandfather, who was a military canine handler during the Korean War. He is survived by his parents, Kevin and Judith, three siblings and his extended family. Wiens' older brother Kevin is serving his second tour in Iraq as a military police officer.


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## rendon

God Bless our Troops and help bring them home safe.......


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## Shooter

That is what I was trying to say when I said they live with them in their hootch. These young men consider the dogs as family, their children. Too up setting to talk about.

The price is high.

Shooter


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## Freshwaterman

Good luck to each of you...been there twice myself.


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