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16 August 2011 Explosive Detection Dog (EDD) ‘Lucky’ is ‘missing in action’ in Afghanistan after the same battle that took the life of Sergeant Todd Langley in northern Helmand province on 4 July 2011.
During the course of the battle Lucky broke away from his patrol and despite repeated attempts to call him back he was last seen in the vicinity of a major insurgent concentration. It was not possible for the Australian soldiers to search for the dog in safety as they were under heavy insurgent fire.
Australian Special Forces and their Afghan partners have since made all reasonable attempts to secure Lucky’s return, including repeated calls to the dog by loudspeaker and broadcasting an offer of a monetary reward in the local area.
Despite efforts to recover the dog and confirm his status after the battle, Lucky is likely dead. It was Lucky’s first operational deployment.
The Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Task Group, Lieutenant Colonel ‘G’ said, “Our dogs are important to our operations and our handlers form extremely close bonds with their dog – losing an EDD is particularly hard on them, but it also affects the whole team who enjoy the company of the dogs.”
Explosive Detection Dogs are highly trained search animals capable of finding buried munitions and indiscriminately placed bombs including Improvised Explosive Devices
Lucky the EDD
Lucky was a male Golden Retriever/Labrador cross born in October 2009.
Explosive Detection Dog (EDD) 'Lucky' in Afghanistan. Photo by ADF PHOTOGRAPHER
He was acquired from Canberra City Pound and was within six-hours of being euthanised when he was assessed as being suitable for EDD training by a visiting School of Military Engineering assessment team.
Lucky entered service in September 2010 and was registered in the Army as ‘EDD 499.’
He completed EDD training at the School of Military Engineering at Moorebank, NSW and was assigned to the Incident Response Regiment in Sydney. Lucky later proceeded on his first operational tour in Afghanistan.
Lucky is officially categorised as missing in action.
EDD 499 Lucky will be commemorated on a dedicated EDD memorial at the School of Military Engineering.
Copyright Commonwealth of Australia
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