Team Chukky detects terrorism in Iraq

Published Oct. 31, 2009
By Senior Airman Alyssa C. Miles
U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- Growing up in Chicago in a house with nine children, Senior Airman Mark Bush was not permitted to have a four-legged friend as a child.

"We weren't allowed to have pets," he said. "My mom said she had enough animals in the house to take care of."

Presently Airman Bush, Multinational Division Baghdad-Iraq military working dog handler, has an animal to care for - his K9, a Belgian Malinois named Chukky - who returns the favor.

Airman Bush joined the Air Force as a security forces Airman in March 2004 and went on his first deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq, in November of that year. While there, he encountered a Navy K9 handler and was amazed by the capabilities of his dog and the relationship and work ethic the two shared. After the Airman redeployed, his base kennel master's retirement speech inspired him to pursue becoming a dog handler.

"Back then, you had to have the kennel master's approval to attend K9 training," he explained. "Being a handler takes a lot of initiative and work outside of your regular duty day. He wanted to make sure we knew that K9 was hard work."

Before receiving approval, Airman Bush had to volunteer at the kennel for 80 hours outside of his regular duty day.

"Three or four people wanted to go K9 at the same time as me," he said. "We started out mopping floors and scrubbing baseboards. It was hard work and by the end of the week I, was the only one who stayed with it. The handlers would move the dogs out of their kennels and I'd have to clean up after them - it's a constant job. After I did that for a few weeks I ended up getting to go out to training and different sights with the K9 department - it made me really excited about going to school."

After completing K9 training and moving to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Airman Bush met his current battle buddy, Chukky. Quickly dubbed "Team Chukky," the duo has been together for two and a half years. Currently they are deployed to Camp Victory, posting security at gates throughout the Victory Base Complex and performing missions outside the wire with the Army and Navy, all the while focusing on safety.

"One thing as a handler, you have to develop skills to keep you safe," he stressed. "You have to allow the dog to be independent, and I've worked with Chukky to make him comfortable to go out from me and search."

The 5-year-old dog's independence and obedience skills allow his teammate to be at the ready for any issue that may arise while on a mission.

"He knows the task at hand without me presenting areas for him," Airman Bush said. "I've incorporated snapping for him to sniff upwards and signals for him to search left and right, so as we're walking, I can have both hands on my weapon and a 360 leash on my belt buckle. He can pattern on his own. I can say 'back' and he'll go deeper into a field. It allows me to stay vigilant. I had to incorporate these skills to build his proficiency."

Staff Sgt. Victor Sanez, MNDB-I MWD trainer, feels that vigilance is key, especially inside a deployed environment, thus making training crucial.

"Several types of dogs are trained throughout the military," said Sergeant Sanez, a native of Rowland Heights, Calif. "On the Air Force side, our dogs are specialized in detection or patrol or both - Chukky specializes in detection. He helps prevent explosives and bombing materials from coming on the base. As far as outside the wire, we try to find weapons caches, improvised explosive devices - anything the dog can hit on."

In a training environment, the dog's capabilities should be at 95 percent, meaning if there were 100 bombs in a field, the dog should be able to sniff out 95.

"You can't compare their capabilities to anything we have technology wise as far as finding explosives," said Sergeant Sanez, who is deployed from Beale AFB, Calif. "If we don't keep up with their training, their proficiency will go down. Training builds confidence between the handler and the dog. They're part of the team, just like an Airman."

Airman Bush agrees.

"I have to be able to read his body language from nose to tail and know that something isn't right before he even gives me a final response," he said. "I don't take my job lightly. I know when I do my job to the best of my abilities, I save lives."

After a day's work, Airman Bush escorts Chukky back to the kennel, which is constantly monitored and cleaned to ensure the dogs' health.

Although he was not allowed a pet as a child, in Airman Bush's opinion, working with Chukky was worth the wait.

"We have a different element of a relationship," he said. "I trust him a lot and he knows that I'm counting on him."