United States Military Working Dog Demonstration Team
This photo was on Kelly AFB where our journey began. left to right: SSgt Cox and Saint SSgt Pierre and Duke Sgt Milnes and Tank SSgt Marriott Decoy SSgt Le Blanc and Candy SSgt Smith Narrator SSgt Thornton and Anchor SFC Blessing Decoy SSgt Albuquerque and Joe
his photo was taken as we watched our Drug Dog sequence - I can still hear the Boos. Left to to right SSgt Marriott decoy SSgt Thornton and Anchor SSgt Williams Drillmaster and Decoy The Security Policeman way in the Background is from Wright Pattersen and is the guy who missed the four dog bite photo. The NCO in Class B Blues is MSgt Ratliff. He was the Course Chief of the Patrol Dog Course and came along for the ride. It is interesting to note that he was also the Kennel Master at Osan AB when I first became a dog handler. K-9 is a small world as you know. `
The handler in the photo is SSgt Joe Albuquerque (Dog Name is Joe) and the Decoy is Me, SSgt Donald A. Williams, Sr.
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The United States Military Working Dog Demonstration Team was formed in 1975, shortly after I became an Instructor in the MWD Program. As with all Military Demo teams, the key players will change at times due to PCS. I'm going to list the key players of the team as those who were on the team when we were tasked to do the Cincinnati Demo:
Note: At this point in time, Lackland had become the Dog School for the entire DoD with the Air Force as the primary manager of the program. As such, we billed our team as the United States Military Working Dog Demonstration team as opposed to the Security Police Academy or the Lackland Air Force Base Demo team. Allow me to give you a bit of my Bio first, so that you will know about my association with the Military Working Dog (MWD) program. I entered the Air Force in 1972 and retired in 1992. I became a dog handler almost by accident. I was designated as an 811X0 and sent to Osan Air Base as a Security Specialist in 1973. About two months into my tour, my Flight Chief asked for a volunteer. The weather was such that I thought cleaning gate shacks would be far better than guarding a couple of F4 Phantoms. Next thing I knew my flight chief told me that I just volunteered for K-9 School at Kadena Air Base. My next assignment was Seymour Johnson and I was two weeks from getting out of the Air Force when I saw an Ad at CBPO stating that MWD Instructors were needed at Lackland AFB. So in 1975, I was sent to Lackland Air Force Base and I became as an Instructor in the MWD program. Out of my 20 years in the Air Force, I spent 14 at Lackland in the MWD program and my next overseas tour was Kadena Air base Dog school (ironic to become an instructor at the school I was originally trained as a handler). From Kadena, I went back to Lackland AFB Police K-9 section and then back to the K-9 school with the Security Police Academy. My last overseas tour was as Kennel master of Osan Air Base (another Irony that I became the kennel master at the base where I first became a Dog Handler.) When I retired, I was working as a resource adviser for the Security Police Academy. Of all my achievements, nothing in my career can compare to the TEAM effort of the MWD Demo team when we were selected to perform in Cincinnati. History: The MWD Program has been doing K-9 Demonstrations since its' inception in 1957 when the MWD Program was established at Lackland AFB. However, the basic growing pains of the newly formed program followed by the long involvement and huge requirements for working dogs in Vietnam, did not allow the team to travel as extensively as we did from 1975 through 1985. Team members: SFC R. G. Blessing, USA, - our primary Decoy SSgt Donald A. Williams, Sr. USAF - Drill Master and secondary Decoy SSgt Jimmy L. Thornton USAF and Demo Dog Anchor L279 SSgt Dennis Smith, USAF, Narrator SSgt K. P. Pierre and Demo Dog Duke (brand unk) SSgt Eddie Cox, USAF and Demo Dog Saint (brand unk) SSgt Joe Alburquerque, USAF and Demo Dog Joe (Brand unk) SSgt M.. LeBlanc, USAF and Demo Dog Candy (brand unk) SSgt Jerry Marriott, USAF - 3rd Decoy Sgt Hank Milnes, USA and Demo Dog Tank (brand unk) |
It was during the period of 1975 through 1978 that our team grew in popularity and demand. Many of our shows were accomplished wherever the USAF Thunder Birds were performing. On one occasion, we were invited to Canon AFB and our stage was set directly in front of the parked Thunder Bird aircraft and our time slot was the 45 minutes prior to the Thunder Birds pre-show. Our normal demo length was 30 minutes so we used the extra 15 by marching (with some K-9 Razzle Dazzle) the entire length of the crowd line awaiting to see the T-Birds and then we went into our normal routine directly in front of the VIP stands and the parked T-Bird Aircraft.
As we ended our routine, we were kept on stage by request of the VIP stands desire to pet our dogs and talk with our handlers. We made a hasty exit as we saw the Thunder Bird Pilots marching towards center stage with their Flight crews at the ready. The very next week, we were scheduled to do a show at Randolph AFB and the Thunder Birds were present for the Open house as well. Being the shy group that we were not - we asked the Public Affairs officer of Randolph to gain permission for our team to perform in front of the T-Birds Aircraft as we were at Cannon. The Randolph PA Officer got on the Phone with the T-Birds PA officer and then we found out that we had stolen some of their Thunder at Cannon AFB. The Commander of the T-Birds got on the phone and told the Randolph PA Officer that if he saw one K-9 team anywhere within 200 yards of his planes, he would personally kick some serious butt.
I share the above story as an example of just how popular we had become - with the exception of the T-Birds Commanding Officer. Bottom line, we had an instant connection with any and every audience we performed for. Age or demographics did not matter. 95% of every person alive loves dogs. Bet you never saw a spectator pet the nose of an F-16 Falcon? Anyway, we had grown in popularity and were traveling to Oklahoma, (Enid AFB) Laughlin AFB, we even did a show for a US Senator from Texas at his birthday BBQ. We were averaging 85 to 90 shows a year (mostly in the summer of course).
Cincinnati Story: Our Demonstration was set for October 15, 1978 and the Bengals were scheduled to play the Patriots at Riverfront Stadium. It was a Sunday Game and so we traveled to Wright Patterson, AFB on Friday the 13th of October with a dress rehearsal scheduled at Riverfront Stadium on Saturday the 14th. We made an unscheduled stop at Little Rock AFB due to an engine failure in the C130 Hercules assigned to transport us to the Demo. The Commander of the C130 told me that we would not get to Wright Patterson on schedule and that is when I found out how much power and clout that Air Force Recruiting Hq. has. I called our Point of Contact (POC) at Randolph and told him that we were stuck in Little Rock and in just under two hours, a second C130 landed with a replacement engine for our C130. We had to be in Cincinnati on Friday in order to do our dress rehearsal on Sat.
All of the team members had been relived of their primary duties six weeks before the show in order to practice for this one event. We used the base football field as our mock stadium. We had to condense our usual 30 minute show into a twelve minute show without losing the meat and potatoes of our routine. As the show date was approaching the one week to go mark: we did a dress rehearsal for Air Force recruiting and our Local Command Structure. Air Force recruiting was concerned about demonstrating a Drug Detection Dog - this was the 70s! Our response was to add some comedy to the Drug Detection sequence and after all, the Air Force Policy on drugs was quite clear.
Sunday arrived and we took a bus from Wright Patterson to the Stadium with plenty of time to give our dogs a good break and with enough time to rehearse the show again if we felt it was needed. The team went into our own form of a huddle and we decided not to do another dress rehearsal. With six weeks of practice and our Saturday rehearsal, we were ready. In order to take the stage immediately at Half Time, we watched the first half of the game from the Bengals bench at the sidelines. In order to maximize our audience view, we used six Working Dog teams as opposed to our usual four.
Our Narrator, SSgt Dennis Smith was at his best. From the 50 yard line, I gave the team forward march and stopped for introductions at Dead Center of the field. We accomplished every aspect of this show at a double time march rate in order to condense the routine into the 12 minute time slot. We received our first standing ovation when we accomplished our recall dogs routine. From center stage, I commanded the team "To the Winds March" which is the cue for each handler to turn and march away from the formation to six predesignated spots of the football field. Orders to halt and about face placed all teams about 40 yards away from each other and in a near circle. The handlers were then ordered to march away from their respective dogs by commanding the dogs to remain (STAY) in their positions and the handlers marched to the rear of the opposing K-9. The next command given to the handlers was to Recall their dogs. This caused all six dogs to reach center stage at approximately the same time which inevitably results in a form of K-9 traffic jam and was always a crowd pleaser. The stadium crowd was filled with laughter and applause as I regrouped the team to exit the stage and prepare for the Controlled Aggression sequence. Again, to maximize the spectators view, we conducted the aggression sequence using three teams simultaneously, one on the 50 yard line and one on each 25 yard line.
We did the drug dog demonstration and we actually got "Booed" by the audience as soon as they heard the words "Drug Dog." As planned, Sergeant Cox and R.G. Blessing made the sequence appear funny by allowing Saint (the drug dog) to find and grab the hidden Marijuana and actually return the drugs to the Decoy (suspect) instead of the Handler (Police Officer). We were doing everything so fast that the Boos lasted only seconds and then the Boos turned into laughter and applause.
Grand Finale: While Sergeants Cox and Blessing were exiting the stage, four members of the team (with dogs) placed themselves in position for the final sequence of the show. We were in the final two minutes of our twelve minutes of fame. Two of the four teams were positioned on the 25 yard line and on opposite sides of the field with the other two teams on the opposing 25 yard line and on opposite sides of the field. As the narrator prepared the crowd (specifically the on duty Law Enforcement Officers) about the use of Blank Ammunition (gunfire) during this sequence, R. G. Blessing (our primary decoy) moves onto the field wearing two controlled aggression sleeves. Yes, our final sequence was to send all four dogs too attack a single decoy. On cue from the decoy, each handler released his dog at ten second intervals as the decoy fired three rounds of .38 caliber (Blank Ammo). The sound and the echo of firing the weapon was greater than we had anticipated yet, nearly overshadowed by the shrieks and sound coming from the audience. Despite the noise level - all four dogs continued their attack and R. G. caught two dogs on his right arm and two on his left. R. G. was forced to the ground by the the tug of war action of the four dogs and the handlers moved in about half the distance to terminate the sequence. The handlers simultaneously commanded their dogs (Out - to release their bite) and each dog responded immediately and returned to their respective handlers. The crowd went wild with applause and I do believe we received a second standing ovation.
Note: This is where your going to say "show me that photo!" I can't because it does not exist. We asked a Security Police Officer (from Wright Patterson) to take pictures during the show. He was so taken by the four dog attack that he did not take the picture. We asked every cameraman in the stadium if they took a photo or filmed this sequence and we got the same story. No one shot this sequence. If one thing went wrong during this demo - this was the thing. To this very day, R.G. Blessing is not happy about not having a picture of this event. Even more ironic is the fact that we repeated this aggression sequence in nearly every show we did post Cincinnati and still no one has a photo of R.G. catching four dogs at once.
When we returned from Cincinnati, we were greeted at Kelly AFB by our POC from Air Force Recruiting. He told us that the phones of the Air Force Recruiting Office in Cincinnati were ringing off the hooks and that his Commanding Officer (A two star) wants to put our team on the road full time. Two weeks later we held a staff meeting at the Security Police Academy and we discussed the manpower, resources, and funding needed to become a full time Recruiting Team. The idea was presented up the chain of command and squashed for reasons that we were never told. Obviously Money and Manpower were the deal breakers. I guess they also figured that we would still be available "practically free of charge" "out of the hide of the Academy".
We also received a very nice letter from the PA Office of the Cincinnati Bengals. The letter read in part: "Thanks for the outstanding performance by your MWD Demonstration team, We regret to inform you that we can never allow your team to perform in our stadium again. We lost $100,000.00 in beer and food sales because no one left the stands to purchase same at halftime. They were so captivated by your show, they just stayed in the stands and watched."
Seven of the team members listed in this story went on to serve our country for a full 20 year career. I think R.G. was probably at the 23 year mark when he retired. These men are not just my comrades in arms, they are my friends and I'm so very proud of what we accomplished together. We were a close knit team and we took each demonstration very seriously - regardless of the size of our audience.
Donald A. Williams, Sr. Master Sergeant USAF retired
As we ended our routine, we were kept on stage by request of the VIP stands desire to pet our dogs and talk with our handlers. We made a hasty exit as we saw the Thunder Bird Pilots marching towards center stage with their Flight crews at the ready. The very next week, we were scheduled to do a show at Randolph AFB and the Thunder Birds were present for the Open house as well. Being the shy group that we were not - we asked the Public Affairs officer of Randolph to gain permission for our team to perform in front of the T-Birds Aircraft as we were at Cannon. The Randolph PA Officer got on the Phone with the T-Birds PA officer and then we found out that we had stolen some of their Thunder at Cannon AFB. The Commander of the T-Birds got on the phone and told the Randolph PA Officer that if he saw one K-9 team anywhere within 200 yards of his planes, he would personally kick some serious butt.
I share the above story as an example of just how popular we had become - with the exception of the T-Birds Commanding Officer. Bottom line, we had an instant connection with any and every audience we performed for. Age or demographics did not matter. 95% of every person alive loves dogs. Bet you never saw a spectator pet the nose of an F-16 Falcon? Anyway, we had grown in popularity and were traveling to Oklahoma, (Enid AFB) Laughlin AFB, we even did a show for a US Senator from Texas at his birthday BBQ. We were averaging 85 to 90 shows a year (mostly in the summer of course).
Cincinnati Story: Our Demonstration was set for October 15, 1978 and the Bengals were scheduled to play the Patriots at Riverfront Stadium. It was a Sunday Game and so we traveled to Wright Patterson, AFB on Friday the 13th of October with a dress rehearsal scheduled at Riverfront Stadium on Saturday the 14th. We made an unscheduled stop at Little Rock AFB due to an engine failure in the C130 Hercules assigned to transport us to the Demo. The Commander of the C130 told me that we would not get to Wright Patterson on schedule and that is when I found out how much power and clout that Air Force Recruiting Hq. has. I called our Point of Contact (POC) at Randolph and told him that we were stuck in Little Rock and in just under two hours, a second C130 landed with a replacement engine for our C130. We had to be in Cincinnati on Friday in order to do our dress rehearsal on Sat.
All of the team members had been relived of their primary duties six weeks before the show in order to practice for this one event. We used the base football field as our mock stadium. We had to condense our usual 30 minute show into a twelve minute show without losing the meat and potatoes of our routine. As the show date was approaching the one week to go mark: we did a dress rehearsal for Air Force recruiting and our Local Command Structure. Air Force recruiting was concerned about demonstrating a Drug Detection Dog - this was the 70s! Our response was to add some comedy to the Drug Detection sequence and after all, the Air Force Policy on drugs was quite clear.
Sunday arrived and we took a bus from Wright Patterson to the Stadium with plenty of time to give our dogs a good break and with enough time to rehearse the show again if we felt it was needed. The team went into our own form of a huddle and we decided not to do another dress rehearsal. With six weeks of practice and our Saturday rehearsal, we were ready. In order to take the stage immediately at Half Time, we watched the first half of the game from the Bengals bench at the sidelines. In order to maximize our audience view, we used six Working Dog teams as opposed to our usual four.
Our Narrator, SSgt Dennis Smith was at his best. From the 50 yard line, I gave the team forward march and stopped for introductions at Dead Center of the field. We accomplished every aspect of this show at a double time march rate in order to condense the routine into the 12 minute time slot. We received our first standing ovation when we accomplished our recall dogs routine. From center stage, I commanded the team "To the Winds March" which is the cue for each handler to turn and march away from the formation to six predesignated spots of the football field. Orders to halt and about face placed all teams about 40 yards away from each other and in a near circle. The handlers were then ordered to march away from their respective dogs by commanding the dogs to remain (STAY) in their positions and the handlers marched to the rear of the opposing K-9. The next command given to the handlers was to Recall their dogs. This caused all six dogs to reach center stage at approximately the same time which inevitably results in a form of K-9 traffic jam and was always a crowd pleaser. The stadium crowd was filled with laughter and applause as I regrouped the team to exit the stage and prepare for the Controlled Aggression sequence. Again, to maximize the spectators view, we conducted the aggression sequence using three teams simultaneously, one on the 50 yard line and one on each 25 yard line.
We did the drug dog demonstration and we actually got "Booed" by the audience as soon as they heard the words "Drug Dog." As planned, Sergeant Cox and R.G. Blessing made the sequence appear funny by allowing Saint (the drug dog) to find and grab the hidden Marijuana and actually return the drugs to the Decoy (suspect) instead of the Handler (Police Officer). We were doing everything so fast that the Boos lasted only seconds and then the Boos turned into laughter and applause.
Grand Finale: While Sergeants Cox and Blessing were exiting the stage, four members of the team (with dogs) placed themselves in position for the final sequence of the show. We were in the final two minutes of our twelve minutes of fame. Two of the four teams were positioned on the 25 yard line and on opposite sides of the field with the other two teams on the opposing 25 yard line and on opposite sides of the field. As the narrator prepared the crowd (specifically the on duty Law Enforcement Officers) about the use of Blank Ammunition (gunfire) during this sequence, R. G. Blessing (our primary decoy) moves onto the field wearing two controlled aggression sleeves. Yes, our final sequence was to send all four dogs too attack a single decoy. On cue from the decoy, each handler released his dog at ten second intervals as the decoy fired three rounds of .38 caliber (Blank Ammo). The sound and the echo of firing the weapon was greater than we had anticipated yet, nearly overshadowed by the shrieks and sound coming from the audience. Despite the noise level - all four dogs continued their attack and R. G. caught two dogs on his right arm and two on his left. R. G. was forced to the ground by the the tug of war action of the four dogs and the handlers moved in about half the distance to terminate the sequence. The handlers simultaneously commanded their dogs (Out - to release their bite) and each dog responded immediately and returned to their respective handlers. The crowd went wild with applause and I do believe we received a second standing ovation.
Note: This is where your going to say "show me that photo!" I can't because it does not exist. We asked a Security Police Officer (from Wright Patterson) to take pictures during the show. He was so taken by the four dog attack that he did not take the picture. We asked every cameraman in the stadium if they took a photo or filmed this sequence and we got the same story. No one shot this sequence. If one thing went wrong during this demo - this was the thing. To this very day, R.G. Blessing is not happy about not having a picture of this event. Even more ironic is the fact that we repeated this aggression sequence in nearly every show we did post Cincinnati and still no one has a photo of R.G. catching four dogs at once.
When we returned from Cincinnati, we were greeted at Kelly AFB by our POC from Air Force Recruiting. He told us that the phones of the Air Force Recruiting Office in Cincinnati were ringing off the hooks and that his Commanding Officer (A two star) wants to put our team on the road full time. Two weeks later we held a staff meeting at the Security Police Academy and we discussed the manpower, resources, and funding needed to become a full time Recruiting Team. The idea was presented up the chain of command and squashed for reasons that we were never told. Obviously Money and Manpower were the deal breakers. I guess they also figured that we would still be available "practically free of charge" "out of the hide of the Academy".
We also received a very nice letter from the PA Office of the Cincinnati Bengals. The letter read in part: "Thanks for the outstanding performance by your MWD Demonstration team, We regret to inform you that we can never allow your team to perform in our stadium again. We lost $100,000.00 in beer and food sales because no one left the stands to purchase same at halftime. They were so captivated by your show, they just stayed in the stands and watched."
Seven of the team members listed in this story went on to serve our country for a full 20 year career. I think R.G. was probably at the 23 year mark when he retired. These men are not just my comrades in arms, they are my friends and I'm so very proud of what we accomplished together. We were a close knit team and we took each demonstration very seriously - regardless of the size of our audience.
Donald A. Williams, Sr. Master Sergeant USAF retired
