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In Iraq, a Marine's best friend is a bada$$ dog with 42 teeth
 Looks sorta like a German Shepherd. Until he smiles. And then you better hope that's a smile on his face if he's looking at you!Although getting bitten or attacked by their partners is an occupational hazard, Marines on the al Asad airbase northwest of Baghdad say theirs is the most coveted job in the military. After all, they're paired up with what Westerners— although not all Muslims— consider man's best friend. This sprawling base's K-9 teams, which consist of one dog and one Marine, are a mainstay in Iraq's once restive Sunni Muslim Anbar province. More than four dozen teams are working in the province with dogs that are trained to attack and subdue detainees and track insurgents. Nowadays, the dogs are used primarily to detect explosives, either on or off a leash and as much as 500 feet from their handlers. "Nobody had ever utilized dogs in a real combat offensive since Vietnam," said Staff Sgt. Joseph Evans , of the Provost Marshals Office at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, based at Twenty Nine Palms, Calif. "A lot of the knowledge and a lot of the know-how has slipped away through time, so we really had to reinvent the application of our jobs on the fly." Posted by: gorb 2008-05-23 |
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