Background information and commentary by Andrew Carroll: The letters from the past two weeks have focused on how animals have been employed in wartime, particularly the proposed use of bats during WWII, but winged creatures are not alone, of course, in being called into service; aquatic animals are enlisted as well. Bottlenose dolphins, first used in Vietnam, hunt for mines, retrieve equipment fallen to the ocean floor that is inaccessible to military divers, and serve as guards to protect warships from attack by enemy agents armed with underwater explosives. (Sea lions and other Marine mammals are being trained to perform similar feats.) Extremely intelligent, playful, and social, dolphins exhibit many humanlike characteristics; they can also be mischievous, aggressive, moody, and stubborn. In the buildup to Operation Iraqi Freedom, a team of dolphins was sent to the Middle East with Commander Task Force (CTF) 55, a group of American, British, and Australian sailors and Marines whose mission was to clear the northern Persian Gulf, which the US military refers to as the Arabian Gulf, of mines. The dolphins accomplished their assignment admirably, but in a few cases they demonstrated that they had minds of their own. Twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant junior grade BJ Armstrong, a HH-46D Sea Knight pilot stationed on the USS Kearsarge as part of a search and rescue (SAR) detachment, sent the following e-mail back to his family about one such incident. (EOD stands for Explosives Ordnance Disposal.) This e-mail is published in its entirety in BEHIND THE LINES.

Just wanted to drop everyone a note and say hello. Things are going out here. I wouldn't say going well, or badly, they are just going...

Just a funny story to pass along. A little over week ago, before this had all started getting real, we got a funny call from Tower while we were out flying. We were told to report all dolphin sightings. We didn't see any for the couple hours I was up but we did think the call was rather odd. When we hotseated the bird to the next crew we asked about it and they had been briefed more specifically on what to look for. Apparently the EOD guys had lost one of their male mine hunting dolphins. It had just swum away. They had sent out a couple others, trying to lure it back (presumably females) with no luck. All the SAR birds out here in the Gulf were alerted in case we saw a lonesome dolphin swimming around. Apparently there was a happy ending, flipper showed back up a couple days later. I guess even our finned friends get a little weary of life on (and around) the boat.

Love to all,

BJ

The search for innovative ways to employ animals in both combat and peacekeeping efforts continues. In Mozambique, Gambian giant pouched rats are being trained to sniff out land mines left over from the country's vicious civil war. (Dogs are commonly used, too, but the rats' sense of smell is just as perceptive, and the rats themselves are cheaper, easier to care for, and lighter -- and therefore less likely to set off a mine accidentally.) Bees are also being tested for mine-hunting activities; their bodies pick up all types of airborne particles, and if residual TNT is found mixed in with whatever pollen they are carrying, it can confirm the presence of land mines in a specific area. Similarly, entomologists are researching if bugs can be used as tiny sentinels that can be collected and then tested for toxins in the air, water, or soil during a possible bio-terror attack. Insects are not new to warfare. Glowworms were used in World War I to help soldiers read maps and other documents at night. Even plants are being enlisted. Biologists are working to determine whether it is possible to create genetically engineered plants that will quickly change colors upon detecting poison gases or other life-threatening agents. And these, of course, only represent the ideas that the military is able to make public.

NEXT WEEK: In honor of Valentine's Day, a love letter unlike (almost) any other love letter ever written.