Military and Police K9 Milestones

The Herman Bennett Foundation was proud to attend this special event!

Mo Jazi, Ventura County Star

As the U.S. Postal Service unveiled new stamps honoring military working dogs, canines were the stars of the show at Naval Base Ventura County Port Hueneme.

During a ceremony Friday at the base’s kennel facility, dogs’ barks mixed with the voices of speakers highlighting a 2019 forever stamp collection that spotlights four breeds: German shepherd, Dutch shepherd, Labrador retriever and Belgian Malinois.

Among the speakers at the ceremony was Capt. Jeff Chism, base commander.

He said the Defense Department puts dogs to work detecting bombs and drugs, plus performing other tasks such as helping find personnel when needed.

“This training facility here is really just to be able to exercise the dogs to keep their fitness up and to keep their training going because they have a pretty rigid schedule that they have to stay on,” he said.

Within the United States, he said, “They do a lot of presidential details and vice presidential details.”

He said dogs are deployed farther away, as well.

“We most recently had a dog handler and his dog returned from Syria, working with special forces in the Army, fighting ISIS in Syria,” he said. “We had dogs that are returned recently from Qatar on a mission there, as well as Kuwait and Iraq.”

Although Chism and other speakers shared their memories with the audience, the dogs stole the show, either waiting with their handlers or demonstrating skills, such as scurrying along to stay at their handler’s side during a simulated combat situation.

Among the handlers at the ceremony was Master-at-Arms 1st Class Christopher Chandler, with his dog, Kevin, sitting next to him. Kevin detects narcotics and explosives, plus helps with “apprehension of bad guys and stuff like that,” Chandler said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Orion Evans was standing next to his dog, Lani.

Being a handler, Evans said, “is nothing like I have experienced in the military before. Working by myself is one thing and working with other humans is something else where there is always that communication. But working with dogs is a different world.”
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