[pyrnet] CHAT: Diary of a Rescue Dog Part 1

["Barb Bowes" <bamb@monmouth.com>]

Got this from another list. Barb

Diary of a Search and Rescue K9 Team: Part 1
By Paul Morgan and Cody
K9Soldiers@aol.com


My buddy, Hal Wilson, and I went into the pile at 1100 on
September 12th

with our search dogs, Cody and Sue. You couldn't believe the
teamwork
and
the silence with hundreds of firefighters stumbling through the
mess.

On the way in through rubble, we walked past deserted restaurants
with
white
and checkered table cloths, saw fully stacked bars, wine on
tables and
menus
posted in hallways.......then the full realization of the
disaster hit
us.

We linked up with four state police K-9 teams which were the
dirtiest,
filthiest dog teams we had ever seen, covered with gray dust, mud
and
torn
up clothes. They were pulling out as we were deployed on to the
site by
a
fire officer. The troopers and their dogs being relieved were
absolutely

expressionless with that thousand meter stare.

As Hal and I were escorted to the pile and up on to tons of
debris,
wrecked
police and fire vehicles, hose lines, steel girders, pieces of
aluminum,

drywall, broken glass and steel rods that reminded me of punji
stakes in

Vietnam, we stumbled a dozen times. Then a lieutenant brought us
to a
burned
out rig that had been a hose truck from a rescue unit. It was
gray and
the
cab was cleaned out...no seats, steering wheel, dashboard,
nothing...

The lieutenant asked Cody and me to climb down into a pit ten
feet deep
and
search for any signs of life. I called into the back of the hose
truck
several times but there was no response.  Then Cody, my golden
retriever,
began scratching the earth and whimpering.  I told the
firefighters
above
me, "We have a body down here!"

My dog and I were lifted out of the pit by about a dozen
firefighters
and
the digging began with pikes and shovels. Minutes later the call
came
out...."Body bag!" An orange body bag was sent into the pit and
out came

a
firefighter's remains. Six firemen with a basket lifted the
remains to
the
top of the pile and then they started stumbling towards the
restaurant
area
and the morgue truck parked outside.

A battalion chief asked me, "How good is your dog?" I didn't have
to
answer
for Cody was scratching into a hole on the hose line. Within
thirty
seconds
he came up with blood on his paws. "Body bag!" was heard
again.....and a

new
team of firefighters with a basket and and orange roll of plastic
asked
my
dog and me to step aside.

We turned away and were directed to another team of fire fighters
standing
around a steel girder and an enormous slab of concrete which had
been a
wall
just the day before. We were directed into the hole under the
steel
girder
and the slab where a fire fighter had punched a hole into a pile
of
debris.

I sniffed into the hole and smelled gas. Then Cody began
scratching to
my
left and I made eye contact with another fire officer directly
behind
me. I
nodded my head and the officer called out for another body bag.
But this

time I was trapped! I couldn't get out from under the slab. It
was like
being caught under a stairway in a dark basement. I didn't panic
but I
couldn't go forward and I couldn't back out with my boots caught
in some

other concrete chunks.

Then Cody turned me around pulling me to the left. He was gasping
for
air
and desperate to escape from the hole. I held on to his lead and
crawled

out. Then the firefighters above me pulled me out and lifted Cody
to the

surface.

Three bodies recovered in thirty minutes was more than I expected
from
that
dog. But we were exhausted so we climbed up on to the top of the
"pile"
and
waited for another mission. We sat there under steel girders that
looked

like a giant's fingers about to claw at us.

A building nearby began to crumble and the order came to pull
out. My
helmet
was burried in my back pack under three days of rations for Cody.
I was
too
tired to search for it so I just stumbled away looking for my
buddy Hal
and
his dog, Sue. They were searching at another rig burried under
the
rubble.

When I got back to the ruins where the restaurants were, two
nurses gave

me
some water and another gave me a glass of orange juice. My buddy,
Hal,
and
his dog, Sue, were right behind me. Hal found a metal tray in a
trash
pile.
The dogs needed an awful lot of water. Then out of nowhere a line
of
firefighters with dirty grim faces passed by, each of them
pouring out
their
own water into the metal tray. Another firefighter gave us  two
sandwiches
and some more water. The dogs consumed every drop of
water....three or
four
quarts and then the buildings began to crumble again. We were
ordered
out of
the pile. It was now 1430....