Ramadi, Iraq. 2006. Houses packed closely together. The streets littered with trash. The sickening, musty smell of dead animals decomposing in the desert heat.
The locals, afraid insurgents might see them talking to the military forces that patrolled their city, avoided the Dutch shepherd and U.S. Marine that led troops through the street.
The bombs could be anywhere. In the doorway of a house. Under a pile of trash. Even hidden in a rotting carcass to try to throw the dog off the scent.
Allan, the shepherd, stopped and sat near a rice bag on the corner of intersecting streets. His tail straightened. He sniffed, and the sound of air going into his nose was different, changed somehow. Only his handler would recognize such subtle cues.
At the other end of a six-foot leash, Cpl. Chase Martin came to a sobering realization: This is real.
Even with all the training, youre never ready for that first IED, that first explosion, that first firefight. You dont know how youre going to react.
Deployed in February 2006 as a K-9 unit to hunt improvised explosive devices, Martin said he clearly remembers the first time his dog found an IED in that rice bag during his second or third week in Iraq. Over the course of his eight-month deployment, Martin and Allan would find two weapons caches and somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 IEDs. Most were meant for vehicles and posed little danger to an individual. Many were not even set to detonate. Some were decoys.
The really obvious ones, those are there for you to find. They set those up so you kind of stage your platoon in the areas where they have the real one, Martin explained.
There were scary moments, like the time he and Allan came under sniper fire during a routine mission. A bullet whizzed between Allans rear end and Martins boots, just below the leash he held.
That was the closest call he had, but there were other moments. Small IED explosions They werent big ones. Not like you see in the movies. Firefights. Near-daily sirens alerting them to incoming mortar fire.
Over there, it was a rumor that the insurgents had a kill list. Dog handlers were in the top five. I dont know if thats true, but you are kind of different from everyone else in that platoon. Youre the only one with a dog, so you feel like you have a target on you.
JOINING THE military seemed like a natural fit for Martin, even though he didnt come from a military family. But he had a certain mindset, a sort of mental toughness that seemed suited for such a career. And, he wasnt really sure what else he wanted to do.
He grew up in Colorado until his family moved to Nebraska when he was 14, where he finished high school. As a sophomore, he and his classmates watched television reports about terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Like many of his peers, the attacks fostered a desire to protect and serve his country. It wasnt the sole reason for his joining the military, but it certainly had an impact.
By the end of his junior year, Martin made a decision to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He signed up for the delayed entry program in September of his senior year, and left for boot camp immediately after graduating high school in 2004.
He wanted a job that would allow him to be active and aggressive in his pursuits. He thought serving with the military police would lead to career opportunities, though he later decided he didnt want to be a cop after all.
But in the end, he was awarded a really cool job as a dog handler.
