ARMORED POOCHES ON IRAQ PATROL

G.I.s in Iraq may not be able to get armor for their Humvees. Their dogs, on the other hand, are well pro­tected.
U.S. forces are using K-​​9s, like the one in this New York Times photo to the left, for crowd con­trol and other duties. To keep Cujo and his furry friends safe from dog-​​hating insur­gents, the pooches have been out­fit­ted with new body armor — kevlar vests that are “man­u­fac­tured to the same stan­dards” as the ones peo­ple wear, accord­ing to the Marines.
The armor, weigh­ing seven pounds, pro­tects against small arms fire and stab wounds. And it costs about a thou­sand bucks a pop — chump change, the Corps argues in one of their offi­cial “news” sto­ries.
“We get attached to the dogs because they’re our part­ners, and we don’t want to lose them,” Marine dog han­dler Cpl. Daniel Hillery said.
“If you esti­mate the cost of rais­ing, feed­ing and train­ing a dog, it adds up to some­where around $60,000. Replacing a dog ends up being a lot more expen­sive and time con­sum­ing,” Hillery went on to explain.
Along with the finan­cial ben­e­fits, the new K-​​9 body armor is giv­ing the Marines behind the dogs more con­fi­dence to accom­plish their mis­sions no mat­ter what task is assigned to the unit.
“I think that it makes us feel more con­fi­dent with the dogs because we know that they’re going to be pro­tected, and we feel like we can do more with them,” Hillery explained.
THERE’S MORE: Iraqis will likely find the armored dog­gies “dou­bly insult­ing,” Defense Tech pal KK believes. “The Koran says they are filthy ani­mals. They are not kept as pets,” he notes.

April 29th, 2004 | War Update | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.