Pets in Armed Forces
We’re talking to our CEO Capt. Michael Mendyka, ex-special forces, about his experience with pets in the armed forces.
Hi Michael, thanks for your time, can you tell us a bit more about your time in the military when did it start, where did you work?
It all started in 2010 when I started my official training. I always dreamed about special forces called GROM (Polish special forces unit). Since I was a little boy, my dad was in the military, so it was almost natural for me to follow in his footsteps.
in 2012 I was given a great opportunity to be part of something huge, a new special unit was being formed in Poland and I was able to be one of the first people given a chance to try and get into it.
I did get in and the rest is the history really. For the next 5 years, I was away in many countries, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and few more that I can not talk about.
It was the most incredible time of my life, and a very close step to be able to get to Elite special force unit GROM.
You left forces after some tough times, but you got shot as well right?
Yes, I got shot a couple of times, and there are things I don’t really want to talk about apart from getting shot, but 2nd time I got shot was my knee, it had to be fully reconstructed, listen I am one of the very few lucky people who made it through the war got shot and a few years later I am able to enjoy their life to the fullest, I will never forget how much medical staff did for me, and I will ever forget my fallen brothers and sisters!
Thank you, Mike, can you tell us more about the good times, as you described them. You said you’ve had a chance to work with few dogs in your time in the military can you tell us about a few of them?
Yeah sure, it’s probably my favourite part.
The first time I ever had a chance to work with a dog, was during a search and rescue mission in Syria.
We were told that few hostages captured by the terrorist group have escaped and need our help.
We tried to search them but had no luck, so ‘’Szarik’’ (the name given after a famous war dog from WW2) was brought in from another task as they just finished.
I couldn’t believe how well trained he was, but what happened during the search absolutely blew my mind.
We got to the village where Szarik caught a smell and was following it, and few minutes in we have come face to face with the enemy. We were under fire and focused on the enemy upfront. Meanwhile what we didn’t know at the time was that village was full of traps and places to hide, when moving our position Szarik became aggressive his handler decided to let him go off the lead, Szarik run towards the wall (or at least what we thought was the wall) jump straight at it, turned out that wall was fake and behind it were two enemies with automatic rifles ready to fire when we weren’t looking thanks to Szarik we were able to deal with enemies. As far as I’m concerned I owe my life to him.
Wow, that’s amazing, apart from Szarik was there another dog that stood out to you?
Yes! One night we were tasked with infiltration of the enemy camp, we have used helicopters to get there and have been dropped 1km from the camp. A dog called ‘’Czarek’’ (we laughed because this is a very popular cute name for little dogs in Poland, definitely didn’t suit the tough-looking German Shepperd). Heli didn’t land instead we had to jump out of it, including Czarek. Czarek was given command as soon as we were ready to jump, he was lowered by his handler, and as soon as he touched the ground he ran towards the camp.
He was tasked with finding anyone in bushes, that we may not see (it was dark) and find any traps on the way.
Czarek came back exactly 3:45 mins from landing, carrying what turned out to be a sleeve from someone’s jacket.
Handler grabbed it and asked Czarek to take us to where he found the sleeve.
Until this day I can’t believe what has happened and if Czarek wasn’t strapped with the camera we probably would never know.
Czarek saw an enemy and tried to find whether it’s only one person, when looking around he made little noise, enemy pointed a rifle at him, Czarek jumped on him pushing him into a trap which was made for us, the enemy fell into the trap, Czarek then proceeds to rip a bit of his clothing to bring to us to let us know who we are dealing with (this is probably a good time to say that some colours of clothing helped identify which group and how skilled we are dealing with) This was not just a great way to deal with the enemy but also gave us a lot of intel about the enemy and area.
This sounds like a scene from a movie!
Yes I know, like I said if I didn’t see the recording I wouldn’t believe it.
What would you say to people who say that using pets in the military is cruel and not fair to them?
You know I understand why some people feel that way. I know that when people think of the military, they think of conflict, weapons, fighting, pets getting hurt. The truth is every single soldier whether they’re human or pet are supported and protected the same way.
Dogs go through training just like humans, the only difference is when you train dogs you also find the ones not only that are good at commands and jobs but you’re also finding the ones that enjoy doing it. Dogs may not understand why someone is an enemy and why we’re doing what we’re doing, but they do understand when they do a good job and when they do they get praised. Some dogs love it more than others, and you can actually see how much they enjoy doing the work!
However think of it this way, what we see as sacrifice and very dangerous work, their brains see us ‘’brain food’’, ‘’fun’’ and ‘’I must do this, I don’t know why but I love it’’! Trust me, no animal is ever made to do something they don’t want to, you just won’t get results that you want and need if pets would be forced.
You’re saying pets, but isn’t it just Dogs really?
Well, dogs are very well known and probably a majority of pets in forces but there are other animals working too. You know obvious candidates monkeys, but also smaller animals like rats have been previously trained and tried in combat.
Wow, it’s a very interesting fact, not sure I ever heard this. For the last question, is there anything you would like to say to military personnel and pets working in forces?
Yes, thank you so much for your sacrifice, you know I’ve only spent few years in the military and I know how hard it was, I know how many sacrifices they need to make. Some pay the biggest price, and to those, I’d like to say ‘’we will never forget you’’. This goes to both human and pets, I love pets, I love all animals, those cute cuddly ones and those tough and hard-working ones. They’re all unique and showing that we humans are not as great as we sometimes think.
Z szacunkiem i podziwem ślędzę twego bloga, uważnie czytam wszystkie posty, to jest dobra i właściwa droga budować dydaktyczne “mosty”.
I appreciate you taking the time to create this post. It has long been extremely helpful to me in fact. Appreciate it.