Labradors protect soldiers in Vietnam's battlefields

Eleven black Labradors who walked alongside Australian soldiers in Vietnam's jungle battlegrounds were the focus of a Vietnam Veterans' Day tribute at Warragul on Tuesday.
Vietnam veteran and Warragul RSL member Bob Green spoke about the Australian Army's combat tracker teams when he was guest speaker at last Tuesday's Vietnam Veterans' Day service.
Mr Green was posted to Nui Dat in 1971 as a rifleman. He returned to Australia in 1972 aboard HMAS Sydney as a member of 10 Platoon, D company 4RAR - the last Australian infantry unit to leave Vietnam.
He said Vietnam Veterans' Day was a day to remember those who carried home the deep, unseen scars of war.
He said fellow veterans would remember the mangrove swamps and monsoons; the wait-a-while bush, bamboo and rice paddies; the heavy jungle vines and the suffocating heat of the endless jungle tracks.
"Above all, they will remember the heart-stopping tension that came with every single step through that treacherous landscape," he said.
But, Mr Green said he did not want to share his story, instead providing an insight to the war from a different lense - that of a small, unique group who also walked the perilous jungle tracks and faced the same danger from enemy ambushes, mines and booby traps.
He said the trackers teams were highly trained military working dogs who served alongside Australian soldiers.
They wore official Army identification tags and were given names drawn from Roman history: Tiber, Julian, Janus, Marcus, Cassius, Justin, Caesar, Milo, Trajan, Juno and Marcian.
While Mr Green did not serve with the combat tracker teams, he said he had learned of their remarkable story.
"As infantrymen, we relied on our eyes. We searched for signs that an enemy had passed — a freshly broken twig, a faint boot print in the mud, or perhaps a discarded ration wrapper.
"But the Viet Cong were masters of camouflage and fieldcraft, leaving few visual clues. That is where the tracker dogs came into their own," he said.
Operating from Australia's main base at Nui Dat, the tracker team was a highly specialised unit comprising the dog and handler, visual trackers and cover men, including a machine gunner and signaller.
"When enemy forces broke contact with infantry units and disappeared into the jungle, these teams were often flown by helicopter directly to the area to pick up the trail.
"Where the human eye saw nothing but a wall of green, the Labrador's nose saw a highway.
"They detected what man simply could not — the invisible scent left by human passage, disturbed vegetation and soil, and the faint odour of the men they were pursuing," he said.
Mr Green said the dogs were selected for their extraordinary scenting ability, intelligence and calm temperament. But, most importantly, they were trained never to bark.
"In the jungles of Vietnam, one bark could reveal an entire patrol's position. Instead, they communicated silently.
"Imagine the tension. The tracker team patrol is moving cautiously through dense scrub.
"Suddenly the black Labrador at the front freezes. He makes no sound, his tail stiffens, his nose points toward a patch of thick vegetation.
"Slowly, almost deliberately, he raises one front paw.
"In that silent gesture, every soldier behind him instantly understood. There could be an enemy ambush ahead, a booby trap or mines.
By walking point and giving that silent warning, those dogs undoubtedly saved Australian lives," he said.
Mr Green said the relationship between the dogs and their handlers was unlike anything else in the war. "In a world where you never knew what the next minute would bring, the unwavering loyalty of a dog became an anchor of emotional stability.
"The soldiers protected the dogs because they knew how fiercely the dogs protected them.
Mr Green spoke about the story of Tiber.
During an attack in 1968, as the battlefield erupted into chaos, Tiber's handler Private Bryan Meehan lay over Tiber inside their narrow fighting pit, shielding his dog from the explosions and flying fragments.
When the enemy attacked again two nights later, the terror became too much.
Tiber broke his chain and fled across the battlefield through the mortar and rocket fire, towards the Australian perimeter and escaped into the surrounding jungle. He wandered through active battle areas before being found alive sometime later.
The Army eventually retired Tiber from operational service and he spent his remaining years quietly cared for by Australian Embassy staff.
Mr Green said the saddest chapter in the story of the tracker dogs was not during the war but at the end of combat operations.
As Australian forces withdrew from Vietnam, Australian quarantine regulations meant the dogs could not return home because of fears they might introduce exotic tropical diseases.
"For the handlers, this was heartbreaking. These dogs had walked beside them through danger.
"They had shared every hardship of war. Now they were being left behind. The final farewells were deeply emotional," he said.
Mr Green said most of the dogs were placed with Australian Embassy staff or expatriate civilian families living in Saigon.
"Of the 11 dogs who served Australia in Vietnam, not one ever set foot on Australian soil again. They left their paw prints forever on the hearts of the Australian infantrymen who served beside them," Mr Green said.