{"id":1185,"date":"2011-06-07T12:53:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T02:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sandralee.com.au\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2013-05-01T12:28:22","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T02:28:22","slug":"canine-warriors-honoured-with-military-working-dog-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/2011\/06\/canine-warriors-honoured-with-military-working-dog-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Canine warriors honoured with Military Working Dog Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sapper<\/a>

Sapper Darren Smith and EDD Herbie, KIA June 7 2010, Mirabad Valley, Afghanistan (picture supplied by Department of Defence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Australia’s brave four-legged soldiers have been honoured with the inaugural Military Working Dog Day<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The explosive detection dogs and their security and contraband-sniffing canine companions were feted at a ceremony at the RAAF base in Amberley, Queensland, today.<\/p>\n

The Australian Defence Force Trackers and War Dogs Association<\/a> chose the day to commemorate the first anniversary of the deaths of Sapper Darren Smith, <\/strong>an\u00a0Explosive Detection Dog dog handler who was killed in action in Afghanistan with his four-legged warrior, Herbie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Also killed in the Taliban attack was\u00a0Sapper Jacob Moerland<\/strong>, a 21-year-old explosive ordnance engineer who had been in the army three years and was engaged to be married.<\/p>\n

Sapper Smith<\/a> – Smitty to his mates – was killed when the Taliban detonated by remote control an improvised explosive device that Herbie<\/strong> had detected. The patrol was en route to Camp Holland, where the Australian forces are based in Tarin Kowt.<\/p>\n

\"Sapper<\/a>

Sapper Jacob Moerland, killed by an IED in the Mirabad Valley, Oruzgan, June 7, 2010 (picture supplied by Dept of Defence)<\/p><\/div>\n

The ADFTWDA hopes the Military Working Dog Day, which has been endorsed by the chief of the ADF, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston<\/strong>, will become an annual event. It was hosted today by Wing Commander Iain Carty.<\/p>\n

The tragic deaths of Sappers Smith, who, at 26, was a happily married father of one, and Moerland<\/a> marked the first double fatality in a single incident for Australian troops since the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

Five four-legged warriors have been killed in Afghanistan since they were first deployed in 2005. They are EDDs Merlin, Razz, Andy, Nova<\/strong> and Herbie.<\/p>\n

Twenty six Australian Diggers have been killed in Afghanistan since the global war on terror began in 2001, the first being SAS Sergeant Andrew Russell<\/a><\/strong>, who died when his vehicle struck a land mine in Helmand Province in 2002.<\/p>\n

An Australian rifleman serving with the British forces has also been killed.<\/p>\n

Lest we forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia’s brave four-legged soldiers have been honoured with the inaugural Military Working Dog Day. The explosive detection dogs and their security and contraband-sniffing canine companions were feted at a ceremony at the RAAF base in Amberley, Queensland, today. The Australian Defence Force Trackers and War Dogs Association chose the day to commemorate the first anniversary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,9,17,4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-media","category-military","category-politics","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}