MILITARY WORKING DOGS

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – Members of the Security Forces community and the U.S. Postal Service gathered at the Military Working Dog Monument here Aug. 15 for a local ceremony to unveil the new U.S. Postal Service MWD forever stamp.
Headquarters USPS officially unveiled the stamp at the American Philatelic Society’s 133rd annual convention Aug. 1, in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Air Force Security Forces Center Air Force MWD Program Manager and trustee for the monument, Master Sgt. Steven Kaun, opened the ceremony saying the location was a fitting place since it was a historical site where MWD teams gather to show their respect and honor each other.
Kaun then introduced Robert D. Carr, Jr. the 28th Postmaster of San Antonio. Carr, a former Army Ranger who spent 30 years in the service, said the stamp collection included the four most common breeds of MWDs — the German Shepherd, Labrador Retriever, Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd.
“It was my privilege to be in the 82nd Airborne in the Ranger battalion to work alongside the dog handlers and their military working dogs and see them in action in real world environments,” Carr said. “It’s amazing what these animals can do.”
The stamp honors dogs who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces over the past century, starting in World War I when dogs were originally enlisted by the Quartermaster Corps, and a diversity of breeds was accepted.
Carr said the idea of working dogs went even further back to the founding of our country and noted there’s a memo from the first Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin in the Postal Headquarters where Franklin recommended using dogs in the Armed Forces in the War of Independence because they could confound the enemy and cause distraction.