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Airmen, K-9s protect national level conventions

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Daniel Brosam
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Three teams of Airmen and their K-9 counterparts from Malmstrom were selected to provide security at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions July 16 – 28.

Staff Sgts. Antonio Gallegos and Jordan Caldwell, and Senior Airman Glenn Holden, 341st Security Forces Squadron military working dog handlers, and their K-9s Eric, Lady and Gina, traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to serve as detection teams during the two events.

According to Gallegos, the secret service requested multiple dog and handler pairs from across different branches of the military due to the size of the event. He said he saw individual teams from the Navy, Army and the Air Force, totaling approximately 120 teams.

“We were able to meet local law enforcement,” Gallegos said. “I even got to work with Navy and Army dog handlers.”

The teams flew from Great Falls, Montana, to Philadelphia and then drove to Cleveland for the RNC. The seven hour drive turned into a near 10-hour drive in order to keep their furry K-9s comfortable.

“We would stop every 100 miles or so to let the dogs have a break and stretch out,” Gallegos said.

Their first day in Cleveland started with a morning briefing on sets of teams, where the teams would be located and their duties for the day.

The duties consisted of searching every square inch of the convention building looking for unauthorized items such as suspicious packages and contraband.

The teams provided interior support to sanitize the facility from any items that should not have been in the facility.

After spending nearly a week in Cleveland, the Airmen drove back to Philadelphia to attend the DNC. There they provided exterior support by setting up entry control points, searching vehicles that were accessing the hotel where distinguished guests were staying, as well as ensuring parking lots, fields and the convention were free of any danger.

Caldwell said him and his K-9 Lady, a 3.5 year-old Belgian Malinois, had duties that consisted of searching hotel rooms, to include the president’s room and motorcades.

However, at one point his entire day consisted of solely inspecting a 12-story parking garage.

“We didn’t have enough dog teams so I had to search the whole 12-story garage full of cars by myself,” Caldwell said. “Eight hours later, I was done.”

Though some of the days were long and strenuous, Caldwell said the training they receive at Malmstrom absolutely correlated with real-world scenarios like aiding security at the high-profile conventions.

“The (training) with the dogs here is exactly what we train for down range,” Caldwell said. “Whether it’s a contingency operation down range or training around warehouses and vehicles, the training here is a direct reflection of the real world.”

The impact opportunities like these have on man and dog is immeasurable. Gallegos said the bond between him and his 2-year-old K-9 Eric, grew because of the time spent completing a real-world mission together.

“My dog was great throughout the entire event,” Gallegos said. “We’ve only been together about four months and seeing each other 24 hours a day for those two weeks brought us a lot closer together and helped us bond.”

This was the largest mission these Malmstrom Airmen and dogs participated in together and the Airmen said they look forward to completing more in the future.