JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
It was on this day, 73 years ago, that military working dogs first entered the service on Mar. 13, 1942, to serve the Army's K-9 Corps. Since then, today has been informally known as K-9 Veteran's Day.
Today, MWDs continue to serve in all branches for the purposes of finding explosives, weapon caches and drug paraphernalia on base and abroad.
"This is the largest operational state side dog kennel in the Department of Defense," said Staff Sgt. Mark Winning, 11th Security Forces Support Squadron military working dog handler. "We have more than 30 dogs on base. MWDs will, on average, work eight to 10 years before retiring with honors and hopefully being adopted out to a family. Smaller bases might have one or two K-9 units on duty, whereas we will have five to six K-9 units patrolling the base at any given time."
Although not officially celebrated, March 13 recognizes all the historical accomplishments and contributions of MWDs to the uniformed services.
Dogs are deployed just like Airmen, and can be paired with their current handlers or be assigned to a new one once in an austere environment.
"The dogs are trained largely on sniffing out drugs and explosives, whether it's on the flight line, a vehicle or an individual," said Winning. "They are also trained on attacking a suspect if necessary, whether they feel threatened or are commanded by their handler to attack the perpetrator. However, we do get them around people as much as necessary so they're not spooked when around strangers."
Team Andrews security forces members consider their canine companions to be essential to their mission.
"All of our dogs are star performers and are an important part of the military family, not just the mission here to protect and defend the base, its residents and the President of the United States," said Tech. Sgt. Manuel Garcia, 11th SSPTS military working dog trainer. "Dogs are just like Airmen, with jobs to do and the feelings they experience while doing them. We appreciate these dogs and make sure they know we value and care about them greatly."