The Buzz

The Dogs Of War

Canines have been drafted by both sides in the terror war. Iraqi insurgents now strap explosives on dogs and remotely detonate them near groups of police and soldiers. The U.S. military uses them in Iraq to detect explosives, stand watch and sometimes to intimidate prisoners.

Here at home, detector dogs are part of the post-Sept. 11 scenery in airports, at border crossings and now, increasingly, on subway platforms. The Transportation Security Administration trains the dogs and handlers you see in airports and other transportation hubs. More than 350 TSA-trained teams patrol the 65 largest U.S. airports; the goal is 82 airports by the end of 2005.

TSA inherited its dog-training program from the Federal Aviation Administration. That program began on March 9, 1972, when a detector dog found a bomb on a flight headed from New York to California. When Brandy, a German shepherd, found the explosive device in a bathroom, 12 minutes remained on its timer.

TSA trains and breeds dogs at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, home to the military dog program. Breeding and training runs the agency $35,000 per dog. TSA-trained dogs are used exclusively for bomb detection, which they learn by scouring cars and airplane interiors at Lackland.

The Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection bureau trains detection dogs at centers in Front Royal, Va., and El Paso, Texas. The Justice Department's Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms bureau shares the Front Royal center.

More than 1,200 CBP dog-handler teams work at ports of entry and Border Patrol stations. They detect chemical weapons, explosives, U.S. currency and concealed people, and do search and rescue work. CBP also trains beagles in Orlando, Fla., to sniff out prohibited vegetables, fruit and meat being carried into the country. Most CBP dogs come from animal shelters, humane societies and rescue operations, but the agency also buys and breeds them.

ATF trains dogs to detect not only explosives, but concealed firearms and ammunition as well. ATF plans to offer proficiency testing for bomb-sniffing dogs from law enforcement agencies across the country in the near future.

Meanwhile, at Lackland, TSA is readying its dogs for a new front in the ongoing war. A mock mass transit facility is under construction and should be ready for the dogs to search early next year.

Hooking Up

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2003 data

Talk 'Em Up Training

Imagine the kind of computer game Army Special Forces soldiers might play in class and visions of hand-to-hand fighting come to mind. But instead of violence, soldiers at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, N.C., are practicing creative thinking, negotiation and cross-cultural communication on their computers.

"It's not a shoot 'em up, it's a talk 'em up. If you use your weapon, you've failed," says Elaine M. Raybourn, a research scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Raybourn developed the content of the Adaptive Thinking and Leadership simulation. She views the game as a virtual sandbox in which soldiers can role play and practice what they learn in the classroom.

Each student gets a laptop computer, a headset and a microphone. Some act as Special Forces troops, others as host-country nationals. Episodes are set where soldiers are likely to be deployed, notably the Middle East and Southwest Asia. As many as 24 can play at once. Instructors and student ob-servers clue in players to cultural faux pas and other slipups in real time.

"It's not good guys versus bad guys," Raybourn says. "If that's your mind-set, you can't adapt. We try to put in surprises so they will question their own stereotypes and judgments. In the poorest of environments there might be people who are great leaders or will share their food with you."

She believes the simulation could be adapted to any environment where decisions must be made under stress-medical facilities, multinational corporations, law enforcement agencies, the State Department, the United Nations, even public schools.