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KF5JRV > TODAY 13.03.19 13:21l 48 Lines 2357 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 32672_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 13
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<LU3DVN<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190313/1119Z 32672@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On this day in 1942, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United States
Army begins training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or
“K-9 Corps.ö
Well over a million dogs served on both sides during World War I,
carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and providing
some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers. The most famous
dog to emerge from the war was Rin Tin Tin, an abandoned puppy of German
war dogs found in France in 1918 and taken to the United States, where
he made his film debut in the 1922 silent film The Man from Hell’s
River. As the first bona fide animal movie star, Rin Tin Tin made the
little-known German Shepherd breed famous across the country.
In the United States, the practice of training dogs for military
purposes was largely abandoned after World War I. When the country
entered World War II in December 1941, the American Kennel Association
and a group called Dogs for Defense began a movement to mobilize dog
owners to donate healthy and capable animals to the Quartermaster Corps
of the U.S. Army. Training began in March 1942, and that fall the QMC
was given the task of training dogs for the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast
Guard as well.
The K-9 Corps initially accepted over 30 breeds of dogs, but the list
was soon narrowed to seven: German Shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs,
Doberman Pinschers, collies, Siberian Huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo
dogs. Members of the K-9 Corps were trained for a total of 8 to 12
weeks. After basic obedience training, they were sent through one of
four specialized programs to prepare them for work as sentry dogs, scout
or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. In active combat
duty, scout dogs proved especially essential by alerting patrols to the
approach of the enemy and preventing surprise attacks.
The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who
served with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog,
Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun
nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender. The wounded Chips
was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple
Heart–all of which were later revoked due to an Army policy preventing
official commendatio
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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