Originally Posted by
tracker
joined april64
turned 19 feb 66
siagon late feb 66
vt early march66,
op hardihood started the move to the dat.
home april67.
back in april 69 for another 11 months.
sig may give some idea of job.
left army 73.
NFR
Something like this? Bob
Tracker Dogs
Of all those sent to Vietnam eleven members of the Australian Army carried out their allotted tasks without a word of complaint, which was all the more commendable considering they could not return home when their tour of duty ended. These veterans were, of course, the tracker dogs used by the Australian Task Force.
The dogs were the core of Combat Tracker Teams that were used from 1967 until the last combat troops departed in1971. Normally two dogs were assigned to each of the Australian Battalions of the Task Force at Nui Dat. Each dog would complete around a three year tour before they were ‘retired’. On occasions, as when 2RAR was replaced by 4RAR, which arrived with Milo and Trajan, there were three dogs in the battalion.
Generally, a Tracker Team consisted of the two dogs and their handlers, two visual trackers and two cover men (a machine-gunner and a signaller). However, each Battalion had their own way of doing things and so you will find, for example, in 6RAR during their second tour from June 1969 to May 1970 there were 3 teams in use.
The dogs were trained at the Infantry Centre, at Ingleburn in NSW, and came from a variety of sources, including the local pound. They were outstandingly successful in carrying out their tracking task and, although not trained to detect mines, the dogs were intelligent and sometimes able to do so.
The Australian Army policy was that the dogs would not be brought home at the end of their service. One reason, perhaps not adequately explained at the time, related to an Army veterinary report which noted that large numbers of American tracker dogs in Vietnam had died from a tropical disease, thought (but not confirmed) to be transmitted by ticks. The report recommended that no tracker dogs be allowed back into Australia “even under strict quarantine”.
Homes were found with European or Australian families resident in Saigon for 10 of the 11 dogs. One dog, Cassius, died of heat exhaustion after a training run.
In order of arrival in Vietnam, the dogs were
- Cassius
- Justin
- Caesar
- Marcus
- Tiber
- Janus
- Julian
- Milo
- Trajan
- Juno
- Marcian
I’m pretty sure the dinosaurs died out when they stopped gathering food and started having meetings to discuss gathering food
A bookshop is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking
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