Navy SEAL Dogs by Mike Ritland

Author:Mike Ritland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

11

THE BOND AT BOTH ENDS OF THE LEASH

A dog can have a great personality and be very well bred, athletic, and smart. That still leaves us with a lot of work to do before a dog is ready to be deployed. A key component of that work includes the dog’s handler. Not unlike the dog that will be at the other end of the leash, each handler has to go through his own extensive training. I’ve spent a lot of time training both handlers and dogs, sometimes separately and sometimes together. I’ve found that even though someone is a great SEAL team member, that doesn’t mean he’ll function well as a handler, and just because a dog has earned his title, that doesn’t mean he’ll make a great SOF dog.

A handler and a dog that do qualify as individuals still have to function seamlessly as a team within the larger SEAL team and the battlefield into which they are deployed. There needs to be extraordinary trust, understanding, and respect between a handler and his dog, like the kind Brent and Rocket have for each other. Another amazing duo is Aaron and Castor. These two serve as a template for the kind of heart and mind necessary to take on the task of being a Navy SEAL handler-and-dog team. Aaron’s dedication to his dog differs only slightly from the devotion that most pet owners feel toward the four-legged friend in their lives.

Like me, Aaron grew up knowing what he wanted to do with his life. Living in South Dakota, just outside Rapid City, he couldn’t see Mount Rushmore, but he had a much closer and living, breathing example of our country’s greatness—his grandfather. Aaron’s grandfather was a member of the “Greatest Generation,” meaning he grew up during the Great Depression and went on to fight on the battlefields of World War II. Like my own grandfather, and like so many others, he didn’t sit around spinning yarns about his exploits. In fact, no one else in Aaron’s family except for Aaron seemed to place much emphasis on Grandpa Jim’s experiences. “I was just extremely interested,” Aaron said. “There was something about the military that I liked, so I started asking him about World War II. And once he started talking, he opened up and just told me all kinds of amazing stories.”

Aaron’s grandfather was one of those patriotic Americans who enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor and became a boatswain’s mate on three different ships. He was also one of those fortunate Americans who served for the duration, including a lengthy stint aboard the USS Portland, which saw duty in major naval battles in the Pacific. From Guadalcanal to Corregidor to Okinawa, the men aboard the USS Portland served with distinction. Aaron’s grandfather didn’t glorify the war, and Aaron recalled some of the horrific elements of naval combat he was told about, but mostly he remembered what his grandfather told him about the camaraderie among the crewmen and the lifelong friendships he made.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.