On this Day in History; Did you know...

U.S. Army launches K-9 Corps

On March 13, 1942, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United States Army begins training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or “K-9 Corps.”

Well over a million dogs served on both sides during World War I, carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and providing some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers. The most famous dog to emerge from the war was Rin Tin Tin, an abandoned puppy of German war dogs found in France in 1918 and taken to the United States, where he made his film debut in the 1922 silent film The Man from Hell’s River. As the first bona fide animal movie star, Rin Tin Tin made the little-known German Shepherd breed famous across the country.

In the United States, the practice of training dogs for military purposes was largely abandoned after World War I. When the country entered World War II in December 1941, the American Kennel Association and a group called Dogs for Defense began a movement to mobilize dog owners to donate healthy and capable animals to the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army. Training began in March 1942, and that fall the QMC was given the task of training dogs for the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard as well.

The K-9 Corps initially accepted over 30 breeds of dogs, but the list was soon narrowed to seven: German Shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman Pinschers, collies, Siberian Huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo dogs. Members of the K-9 Corps were trained for a total of 8 to 12 weeks. After basic obedience training, they were sent through one of four specialized programs to prepare them for work as sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. In active combat duty, scout dogs proved especially essential by alerting patrols to the approach of the enemy and preventing surprise attacks.

There were many K-9 hero’s that Renowned World War I canine hero, Stubby, once saved multiple soldiers when he roused them from their sleep after a German mustard gas attack.

"Stubby's story transcends time, in that the story of a dog's loyalty, bravery and devotion to his human companions will always strike a chord with the American public, dog lovers that we are," says Kathleen Golden, curator of the National Museum of American History's Division of Armed Forces History. "Humans are fallible, but dogs are always true, and they will selflessly lay down their lives to protect what they love."

Ronald Aiello, president of the United States War Dogs Association, points out that Stubby was not even an official "war dog." "He was taken to Europe as a mascot and pet," Aiello says, explaining that Corporal Robert Conroy adopted the stray while training on the grounds of the Yale University campus in July 1917. Sergeant Stubby died in his sleep in 1926 at age 10, with his remains gifted to the Smithsonian Institution, where they remain on display.

In 1922, a bulldog named Jiggs was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps by General Smedley Butler. He later was promoted to Sergeant Major Jiggs. Germans called the U.S. Marines “Teufel-Hunden,” or “Devil Dogs,” inspiring Jiggs and a succession of other decorated bulldog mascots.

The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who served with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog, Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender. The wounded Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart—all of which were later revoked due to an Army policy preventing official commendation of animals.

While the Red Cross relied on working dogs during World War I, as did the German, British and French troops, only rare photos exist to document canines’ contributions in the war.