VICTORIA CROSS EQUIVALENT FOR KUNO IN AFGHANISTAN

[Gil Boyd]

What a great story of an heroic effort to save his handler and being awarded the Dickin Medal.
Such a lovely dog, hope he lives the rest of his life in peace!

Meet Kuno, the fearless military dog awarded for tackling an al Qaeda gunman | ITV News

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[GeeRam]

Hopefully he'll enjoy his retirement, although, they don't understand what retirement is of course...
All our furry excocet's still went mental after retirement when they saw my Dad put his uniform on and still expected to be leaving the house with him....my Dad still 'worked' them in his free time to keep the dogs minds active (with the exception of manwork obviously, although I used to run the stand-off exercise for them until they got too old to do that)

[Gil Boyd]

What has changed sadly after speaking to one of my dog handler mates in the Police who has just retired as a young person really ex Military as well at mid 50's.
His dog which he found and trained after acceptance tests into the Police was so young and brilliant when he retired they would not let him take the dog with him. It was handed to another handler in another Force.

That handler was a good mate of his, and when he has to retire the dog, he will let him have his dog back. Needless to say, as I talked to him the other day, it was like talking to someone who had lost a child............he was devastated.
The reason for raising it is, same in the Military nowadays. Unless the dog is badly injured like KUNO was in service, there is no chance you get your working dog to leave with you, even in theatre.

Thats why military training is so rigid and formulised. The dog is supposedly not supposed to notice!!!!!!
What a load of rubbish...............I have been with Police and Military dogs nearly all my life, and especially when I designed the first microwave Miniaturised dog camera. I slept with them so I fully understood the head harness and the microwave kit and how they took to it and what breeds etc.

Took five years to perfect and now cameras and what the dogs can detect are everywhere. I am proud to have been at the sharpend in detection dogs. Drugs/Money/Cancer and all scent.
Dogs are smarter than the majority of human beings and to spearate them from a handler is devastating to them......FACT.
It to impacts on their triaing and will do for severl months !!!

[GeeRam]

What has changed sadly after speaking to one of my dog handler mates in the Police who has just retired as a young person really ex Military as well at mid 50's.
His dog which he found and trained after acceptance tests into the Police was so young and brilliant when he retired they would not let him take the dog with him. It was handed to another handler in another Force.

That handler was a good mate of his, and when he has to retire the dog, he will let him have his dog back. Needless to say, as I talked to him the other day, it was like talking to someone who had lost a child............he was devastated.

My Dad's last two dogs were reallocated dogs, as he was coming close to retirement, so would have had to have handed the dog back into Keston for re-allocation. As it was he managed to get through 5 yearly service extensions to serve until 60, so we had two re-allocated dogs. When he finally retired the last working dog stayed with us, as he was too old to be re-allocated at almost 7 years, and would have been due for retirement within a year.
Many years earlier his 2nd dog was chopped as unsuitable half way through his 14 week basic with her, and he left one morning with one dog, and came home that evening with a different one. My Mum was devastated, and pleaded with my Dad to buy her off the Met, but Dad said no, as no way could we (he) have 3 of them. However, my Dad's sister stepped in and bought her off the Met., and as they only lived about 3/4 miles away and we saw them regularily anyway, we still got to see Anna for the next 11 or so years of her life. We'd had her from being issued as a pup, so almost a year, and so she never did forget us, and whenever my Dad went to visit his sister, Anna would plonk herself next to my Dad for the duration of his visit, probably much to my aunt's annoyance

[Gil Boyd]

Yes absolutely and what they do best...........recognise those who have been kind to them, they will NEVER forget. Breaks my heart to see any animals suffer, especially dogs and cats. Getting too soft for an ex PARA /Police Firearms Officer and a feet up merchant today............as if, still sodiering on in areas I do best and dogs is one of them??
Ironically since I wrote about BING The Parachuting Dog i WW2 and mentioning a lot about the PDSA and their work, they invite me to all their Army dog award celebrations......really honoured!

[GeeRam]

My Dad with dog Major, taken in July 1975 just after being presented with the Black Knight Trophy, which was awarded every year to the meritoriously 'best' handler in the Met.Police (Dad had also been runner up the year before) and back in those days there was 250 odd dog handlers in the Met.
It was also the same year he had been awarded the Queens Commendation For Brave Conduct.
Attachment 112818

[Gil Boyd]

Nice photo mate. I spent many months at Keston with my inventions and thoughts on scents, thanks primarily to John Stevens who had lots of faith in me, leter to become Lord Stevens after the Met Commissioner. He was my immediate boss in Cambs when he first got promoted to ACC.
Not commonly known, he was a BOAC Pilot, and often invited me to the BA flight simulators at Heathrow on his return from the NI enquiry!!
Great to see your dad there with Major, he must have done Military service like me before the Police looking at his medals.

[GeeRam]

Great to see your dad there with Major, he must have done Military service like me before the Police looking at his medals.

Yes, he joined the Army on Dec 7th 1944, a few months after his 18th birthday and just after his Home Guard unit had been stood down, and served in Germany just before the German surrender, and also did a 12 month tour in Palestine in 46 to 47 before being demobbed in March 1948. He was retained on the Z list of reserves through Korea and did his last 2 week training camp just before getting married to my Mum in 1953. He amazingly wore 4 different cap badges in his relatively short Army service (if you include the HG service)

When he retired from the Met in 1986, he was the last serving Constable who had seen WW2 service.