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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-06-29 Daily Xml
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AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:41): Last week we were reminded painfully about the terrible impact of war and its consequences. We were reminded of the daily turmoil of the workplace reality of the serving men and women of the Australian Defence Forces. We again saw defence head Angus Houston and minister Faulkner undertake the melancholy duty of informing the nation that we had lost brave soldiers in the line of duty, doing what their training had prepared them to do in the dangerous war zone of Afghanistan.

Along with our brave soldiers there are some very loyal and special dogs doing serious and life-saving work, and they have been trained to do it in the proud tradition that has seen dogs truly become man's best friend. Just before 11am last Monday in the hot and dusty Mirabad Valley two newly-arrived combat engineers on their first tour of duty, Sappers Darren Smith and Jacob Moerland, known to their unit as Smithy and Snowy, were conducting a routine—if there is such a thing in a war zone—route clearance ahead of an Australian patrol.

Sapper Smith's dog Herbie was by his side and detected an enemy bomb. As the two soldiers from the Brisbane-based 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment approached, a Taliban insurgent detonated the device via remote control, killing one of the men and the dog instantly and leaving the other man mortally wounded. He unfortunately died not long afterwards in an army hospital.

This tragedy was the first time since 1971 in the Vietnam war that more than one Australian soldier has been killed in action on the same day, bringing the total number of lives lost in the Afghanistan campaign up to 13. It is with a sense of overwhelming sorrow that we note the passing of these brave soldiers and my heart goes out to their families.

I also today want to make particular mention of the dogs of war. Herbie is the fifth dog to die in Afghanistan. His cremated ashes will be returned to the widow of his trainer, Sapper Smith, and I understand that, just as they lived together and worked together, they will be laid to rest together as well. Sniffer dogs are a highly-valued military asset in the front line in Afghanistan where the Taliban is increasingly turning to the use of roadside bombs to attack allied forces and the fledgling Afghan National Army.

The dogs have already saved countless lives by finding weapon caches, booby-trap bombs and unexploded ordnance dropped by allied war planes, which could have killed or injured locals or been used to make more roadside bombs. Bomb sniffer dogs often move at the front of the patrols as forces move through hazardous areas, and they are painstakingly trained not to touch or interfere with any suspicious object, instead sitting and staring at the source of the scent.

It normally takes around 15 weeks, which is an astonishingly short time, it seems to me, to train a young dog before they are front-line ready. Most come from dogs' homes or are donated by the public and work for around eight years before retiring from military life. These dogs start their day at about 7 o'clock with their trainers, going on either a run, an obstacle course or what is called agility training. The rest of the day involves organised search training before the dogs are walked, fed and returned to their kennels. The most popular breeds for this type of work include Border Collies or other working breeds like Kelpies, Blue Heelers and Labradors. Brave Herbie, who died so shockingly last week, was a Collie cross.

To ascertain whether the dog will potentially be any good at their job, they are first tested by someone letting off some cap guns to make sure they will not be gun shy, and if they enthusiastically play with a ball often it indicates that the dog has the drive and resolve to be trained. While the training is very important, a close bond between the handler and his dog is just as vital. Twenty-six year old Sapper Smith, who originally hailed from Adelaide, told the Adelaide Advertiser just last month what a great feeling it was to be serving his country and how the army dogs are great mates and part of the team.

On the weekend, hundreds of dogs and their owners gathered at the War Dogs shrine on the banks of the River Murray at Goolwa to remember Herbie and sappers Darren Smith and Jacob Moerland, whose funerals will be held in Queensland. The memorial service was conducted by the Australian Trackers and War Dogs Association. What they originally thought would be a small gathering at the memorial stone erected for the working dogs, the Army Tracking Dogs of Vietnam, between 300 and 400 people, and almost as many canine companions, came to pay their respects to a canine hero.

Vietnam veteran Chris O'Neill was quoted in The Advertiser as saying that he felt that all animal lovers and people with dogs could relate to Herbie. Himself in charge of a tracker dog in Vietnam, Chris related a story of a dog that he lost through heat exhaustion. I am sure that everyone was grateful to have had the opportunity to release their emotions and feelings around how important the work of dogs is in our defence forces. Herbie had alerted his mates to the bomb moments before it was detonated. Because of quarantine regulations, he was cremated before he was returned to Australia, where his ashes, as I said, will be given to Sapper Smith's family.

The image of Herbie and his master in the paper conveys the vitality of the bond they shared, and it is fitting that they will always be together. As a dog owner and lover, I have always been aware of the role of defence dogs, even when I had the opportunity to meet Peter Haran at the launch of his book, Trackers in 2000. Peter was interviewed on the radio yesterday. Unfortunately, I was not able to hear the entire segment, but I did hear him pay tribute to the dogs that died in Vietnam where he was first posted in 1967 as a 19 year old handler with one of the army's first combat training teams.

Peter went on to become a trainer, returning to Vietnam in 1970 as an infantry section commander. He is a founding member of the Australian Army Trackers and War Dogs Association, which erected the memorial stone at Goolwa featuring a paw-shaped water dish used by dogs as they walk past that peaceful spot.

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