Devotion In Triplicate. Kelev tov. by Dixie Whitman
You could hardly blame Johnny for the dirty look he was giving Albert. Their big bird had finally landed, the back ramp lowered and Johnny, bounding out in the lead, had just breathed his first fresh air in hours, only to realize when the first scent molecule hit his olfactory system, that he was back in Iraq, yet again. After one whiff of Iraq, Johnny turned and glared at Al, his handler, as if to say, “You’ve got to be kidding me, man. Not this again.” As disappointed as Johnny might have been with their working location, it did not deter him from his job at hand as a Military Working Dog. In fact, he was always all business: Johnny was never deterred
from his job. From the earliest beginnings of his career, he was trained with old school methods and had been through the Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging (KNVP) or Royal Dutch Police Dog Association training. This training is unchanged and old-fashioned to produce strong working dogs with tons of drive and spectacular high bites. It was not unusual then that when Johnny’s first handler flew to Israel to pick him up, Johnny managed to bite SSgt. Harvey through the kennel fence as he leaned against the run and chatted with the kennel trainer. Jason Harvey, was matched up with Johnny due to their
combined personalities and work ethics. While that first bite might not have been the start that Jason had hoped, over the next two weeks of forming a bond with Johnny, it appeared that the two of them really did click. While Jason was finding Johnny an independent thinker, vocal and needing the last word on things, he also found in him a stellar partner, one he says he could always count on 100%. He never doubted things when Johnny was in front. Ultimately, with an additional eight months of training at
Camp Pendleton, California, Jason was able to mold Johnny into a first class Specialized Search Dog (SSD), one who was able to work off-leash at a range of 1,000 meters. Jason could watch Johnny work through binoculars and either through hand signals or radio communication, would send him commands to search specific areas. In very early 2005, the team’s skills would be severely tested
for the first time as they drew a tour in the wild west, known as Anbar Province, Iraq. And, a year later in late 2006 they were back again in another conflict in Afghanistan, again working the wild west area of Helmund and Kandahar Provinces. Over the duration of their partnership, Johnny and Jason
found twelve IEDs and two caches. One of the caches was located under the foundation of a school in Iraq. Intelligence gathered from locals had told the Americans that a cache existed, but two previous searches had come up empty. The locals could not be dissuaded; there was something there, they insisted. The third time the sweep was scheduled, Jason, the top ranking handler present, decided to take his dog and do the search himself.
62 THE NEW BARKER
Cpl. Albert Johnson and MWD Johnny. They entered the school and found nothing much. One
little canister with some residue that could easily be explained. On a search of the exterior of the school, Jason noticed some paths going up to the side of the building; path locations which made no sense. He asked Johnny to search and in a tiny crack in the foundation, Johnny recognized odors he knew and sat imme- diately, to tell Jason there was indeed something wicked under the building. Jason called for a sledge hammer and pulled out some of the foundation. Looking underneath the building at burlap sacks filled with items, he knew they had something big. Ultimately, seven tons of items were pulled from the cache
and filled up two big supply trucks with everything from explosives to ammunition to tactical gear, putting a serious crimp on insurgent plans. What a rewarding find and a true testament to all of the efforts this team had gone through to become so proficient. Another time, riding in a convoy, Johnny and Harvey’s
vehicle was hit by an IED at the rear of the vehicle. The minor damage was quickly repaired. Within a quarter of a mile at a checkpoint, they were hit again by a second IED, this time on the front end. After climbing out of the vehicle and checking that everyone was ok, they pulled Johnny out to search and the team found two pieces of unexploded ordinance underneath the vehicle where it had stopped.
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