Soldiers Visit Reed Classroom With Their Canine Partners

By Nancy K. Crevier

As an addendum to an ongoing project this past school year in which the sixth grade cluster of Karen Lane and Janet McCabe at Reed Intermediate School struck up a relationship with a Seabee battalion stationed in Iraq, Sergeant Carl Bergquist and Sergeant Jerry Fountaine of the Connecticut National Army Guard Military Working Dog Unit visited the classroom Friday, June 12, with two special partners. Tina, a German shepherd handled by Sgt Bergquist, and Dasty, a German shepherd handled by Sgt Fountaine, accompanied the two soldiers and showed off their training as the men answered questions from the class about the 928th Kennel Master Detachment housed near the Governor’s Horse Guard on Trade Lane in Newtown.

When Ms Lane’s cousin John Dyer was deployed to Iraq, he told her how much the battalion would enjoy receiving mail, and coordinated pen pals between soldiers and Ms Lane and Ms McCabe’s classes. “We sent emails and letters, and have been tracking the battalion all year on Google Earth,” said Ms Lane, “and then the kids research where the troops are.”

The classes have also collected magazines, cards, gum, candy, saline drops, and international calling cards for the battalion they adopted this year. “It was supposed to be just a quick ‘hey, how are you’ sort of thing,” Ms Lane said, “but it turned into a much longer thing, and we learned so much. The kids see these guys as heroes.”

Patrick Berger, a student of Ms Lane’s, developed a particularly strong relationship with his pen pal, Seabee David Sharp. “He gave me a charge coin,” said Patrick, which Ms Lane explained was a personal challenge Navy tradition. In Patrick’s case, it is a reading challenge for the summer. “If he doesn’t comply,” said Ms Lane, “then he will have to give the coin back.” Patrick does not plan to let that happen, she said.

The Seabees (from “Construction Battalion,” or “CBs”) are a division of the Navy responsible for general construction, operation of heavy equipment, and maintenance of the equipment, among other duties. While the children would love to meet “their” Seabees, the deployment overseas naturally prevents that. So Ms Lane looked around to find an alternative.

“We wanted a serviceperson to come and talk to us, so I contacted Newtown resident Donna Randle, who is a former servicewoman, and she was able to arrange to have Sgt Bergquist and Sgt Fountaine and their partners visit us,” said Ms Lane.

In introducing the sergeants on Friday, Ms Randle took a moment to thank the classes for the more than 2,500 letters they had written. “You make us all so proud and happy,” she said, and encouraged the children to continue sending letters. Sgt Fountaine, a veteran of Somalia and Panama, added that “the letters from home make a big difference when guys are overseas. It’s a connection to home.”

Sgt Bergquist, who served in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, is with the Military Police Unit now at Newtown, as a team leader for narcotics. He and his dog, Tina, a narcotics dog, work with local and state police, as do Sgt Fountaine and Dasty, he told the children. “We also provide homeland security and drug patrol,” said Sgt Bergquist.

The dog units in the United States are outsourced, Sgt Bergquist told the sixth graders, meaning that they might help search or guard at nearby places like Danbury Federal Prison or with Connecticut State Troopers, or they may be assigned to patrol Yankee Stadium in New York City. The dog units have even been assigned to patrol President Barack Obama’s Chicago home.

“We are active duty state soldiers first, though,” said Sgt Fountaine. “We have a dual mission to the state and the nation, and sometimes we are sent overseas. We are cops with dogs,” he said. “I have the best job in the world. I get to  lay with my dog all day, and if he’s finding drugs, he’s having fun,” said the sergeant.

In response to questions, Sgts Fountaine and Bergquist explained that the eight dogs presently are housed in Newtown, six of which are actively serving, are exclusively explosives and narcotics dogs. All of the puppies come from overseas, usually Germany, Belgium, or Czechoslovakia. The puppies receive their initial training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and then have approximately nine months to certify with his or her handler. The training and ongoing training for the dogs and handlers is rigorous, said Sgt Fountaine. “Every training event, every year, the dogs have to be 90 percent right on narcotics, or 95 percent right on explosives,” he said.

While the dogs are handled exclusively by just one handler, said Sgt Bergquist, because of security reasons Tina and Dasty and the other dogs do not go home with the handlers at night. The dogs, like all soldiers, serve as long as they are capable of maintaining standards. “Typically,” Sgt Fountaine answered a question, “a German shepherd cannot do patrol work after seven or eight years of age, but he can still sniff out drugs for another year or two.”

Then where do the dogs go when they are finished with service?

Thanks to the Robby Law enacted during the Clinton administration, Sgt Fountaine answered, military dogs can now be adopted by the handlers. Prior to that, even relatively healthy retired military dogs were euthanized.

Sgts Bergquist and Fountaine then explained some of the basic obedience hand skills and verbal skills that they use with their dogs, eliciting laughter from the sixth graders as they demonstrated the high-pitched, excited voice used to praise the dogs. “If you don’t sound like a 12-year-old boy, you aren’t doing it right,” said Sgt Fountaine.

The classroom did not allow enough space for any demonstrations of skills by the dogs and handlers, but the soldiers explained the use of the choke and patrol collars that the dogs wear. “The dogs know that we are not in detection mode right now,” said Sgt Fountaine, “because they are wearing patrol collars.”

Following the presentation, refreshments were served, including dog biscuits for Tina and Dasty — which they passed on. The dogs are toy motivated, preferring a hard rubber Kong toy to even the tastiest treat.

In closing, Sgt Fountaine once again thanked the classes for the letter campaign to the Seabees and reiterated, “I know they appreciate your letters.”