COURTESY JUSTIN KITTS/LUKE AIR FORCE BASE
foot to nearby villages, connecting with
community elders to find out whether
Taliban operatives were planting impro-
vised explosive devices (IEDs) in the
area. Kitts and Dyngo walked in front to
clear the road ahead. After six months
of these scouting missions, Kitts trusted
that Dyngo would keep him safe.
They were on a path in a field a little
more than a kilometre outside the out-
post when Dyngo’s ears perked up, his
tail stiffened and his sniffing intensi-
fied. It wasn’t a full alert, but Kitts knew
Dyngo well enough to know he’d picked
up the odour of an IED. He signalled
the platoon leader. “There’s something
over there, or there’s not,” Kitts said.
“But my dog is showing me enough. We
should not continue going that way.”
The rest of the soldiers took cover
while Kitts walked Dyngo
to the other end of the path
to clear a secure route out.
They’d gone barely 300 yards
when Kitts saw Dyngo’s nose
start to work faster. His ears
perked and his tail stopped.
He was on odour again. If
Dyngo was right, there were
two bombs: one obstructing
each path out of the field.
They were trapped. Then the
gunfire started. Kitts grabbed
Dyngo and pulled him down
to the ground, his back
against a mud wall. The next
thing Kitts heard was a whis-
tling sound, high and fast,flying past them at close range. Just feet
from where they were sitting, an explo-
sion shook the ground. Dyngo whim-
pered and whined, his thick tail tucked
between his legs. The grenade explosion
had registered much deeper and louder
to his canine ears. Knowing he had to
distract Dyngo, Kitts grabbed a twig,
and both dog and handler engaged in
a manic tug-of-war until Dyngo relaxed.
Then Kitts dropped the branch and
returned fire over the wall.
It turned out that Dyngo’s nose had
been spot-on. There were IEDs buried
in both places. The insurgents had
planned to trap the unit in the grape
field and attack them there.
Altogether, during their nine months
in Afghanistan, Kitts and Dyngo spent
more than 1,000 hours patrolling. TheyAir Force staff sergeant Justin Kitts and
Dyngo on duty in Afghanistan.rd.ca 41