Fluffy, Iraqi Freedom

“This has never been done before…taking a dog from your enemies and making him work for you. Fluffy was not a rescue; he was a sentry dog,” Fluffy’s handler Sgt. First Class Russell Joyce recently e-mailed me about his Army buddy.

Joyce planned to bring his Army buddy home with him after their tour. In the past, a veteran war dog’s return to civilian life would have been impossible; they were either “abandoned in place” or euthanized. In 2000, President Clinton signed the Military Working Dog Adoption Act, which allowed retired military dogs to be adopted by their handlers.

“Two weeks before my return home, I thought I had my T’s crossed and my I’s dotted. I got ready to board the plane home when I was told Fluffy could not go. I scrambled to find another K-9 unit and asked them to hold him for me until I could work out the problem. They could only hold him for three days. The ride home was a scary one. I was not sure what would happen to Fluffy. I just felt like I had let him down,” Joyce wrote.

Animals have been conscripted into human warfare since ancient times. Elephants, the world’s first “tanks,” helped Hannibal crush the Romans. During World War II, pachyderms replaced bulldozers in the jungles, and in war-torn Germany, zoo elephants plowed fields. Oxen, cows, mules, camels and even reindeer have been enlisted as pack animals. Horses supported calvary, infantry and supply lines throughout history until armored vehicles offered more horse power. Still today, special American and Northern Alliance forces on horseback chase Taliban across rugged Afghanistan mountains.

Before the Air Force came the “pigeon force” to provide communication and chemical detection. During World War I, “pigeon-cam” (pigeons outfitted with cameras) enabled aerial surveillance of enemy troops. The U.S. Army Air Corps considered unleashing squadrons of kamikaze bats rigged with fire bombs against the Japanese, but that idea never flew.

For ages, cats sailed ships and prowled trenches to kill disease-laden rats. Rodents, too, performed their duty by chewing Nazi wires. Industrious spiders spun fine silk used as cross hairs for Allied bomber sites. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, dolphins locate underwater mines and escort ships safely to port. Sea lions patrol offshore for intruders and can chase enemy divers on to shore.

But no animal has served its country as loyally as man’s best friend. Throughout history dogs have functioned as guards, messengers, scouts, transports, medics, rescuers, sled-pullers or offensive weapons for their military handlers. Greeks and Romans equipped dogs with spiked collars and sent them against advancing troops. Middle Age knights outfitted both dogs and horses in armor during campaigns.

The U.S. Army first officially used hounds during the 1835 Seminole War to track Indians and runaway slaves. During WWI, all combatants, except Americans, employed specially-trained guard, messenger and medic dogs.

Thank the “dog show” crowd for championing the use of military dogs during WWII. Dog breeders, handlers and the American Kennel Club started “Dogs for Defense” and rallied America’s dog owners to loan their pets for patriotic purposes. More than 18,000 pets were donated, but only half passed muster. After the war, the donated dogs were “deprogrammed” and returned to their civilian families.

Military dogs proved most effective in the jungles of the Pacific and Vietnam. Dense tropical foliage allowed enemies to easily infiltrate behind American lines, except where

dogs patrolled. With their hypersensitive noses and hearing, dogs not only lessened the risks of ambush, they allowed patrols to cover greater distances and boosted soldiers’ morale. Unfortunately, of the 4,000 war dogs who served in Vietnam, only 200 returned. Considered expendable equipment, the rest were left behind to unknown fates.

Fluffy also awaited an unknown fate. Back in the States, Joyce campaigned to bring Fluffy home. He contacted the U.S. War Dog Association for assistance.

“The letters that I had sent to three people somehow got on cyberspace and were sent to thousands!” Joyce said. “I never thought I would wake a sleeping giant – the Vietnam dog handlers!”

The Vietnam dog handlers, who were powerless to rescue their own wartime companions, mobilized to save Fluffy. Soon, Joyce’s phone rang constantly, as did the phones of Senators, the Pentagon and the White House. Three weeks later, Fluffy and Joyce reunited. Since settling with the Joyce family and pets at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, Fluffy visits veterans, lawmakers, animal rescue groups and others who promoted “Operation Free Fluffy.”

“People wrote calling me and Fluffy heroes, but we were not the heroes at all,” wrote Joyce. “It’s the military dog handlers who serve and protect others. It’s the search-and-rescue teams that find lost kids, or attempted to rescue survivors on September 11. Or the police K-9 teams who put their lives on the line to protect us. It’s the men and women of the armed forces who leave their families to go off to foreign lands to free others. And, most of all, it’s all the

Vietnam War vets who never got to a welcome home and were forced to leave behind their dogs that saved so many American lives. These are the heroes.”

Some critics condemn the use of animals in warfare. Animals, they say, do not have a choice to fight. But neither do young people who deploy around the world at a moment’s notice, nor do their worried families glued to TV news back home. Perhaps dolphins, seals, elephants and other wild creatures should not be used in battle. But dogs choose. Time and time again, dogs like Fluffy, Stubby, Chips and Nemo willingly risk their lives to protect their humans when they instinctively could flee. Humans and nations may fight each other because of greed, hatred or politics, but dogs defend their human companions simply out of devotion. That’s what makes war dogs heroes. And that’s why so many strangers fought so hard to bring Fluffy home.