Falkland’s dog walk story
On 16th August 2019 Cpls Sian Taylor, Michelle Wheeler, Katie Patterson, James Oakley, Dexter Reynolds, Chloe Nash, Clare Stewart and Craig Roberts from BFSAI JSPSU Dog section carried out a 33km charity walk from Stanley, Falklands to Mount Pleasant Complex along with their Military Working Dogs PD Bolle, PAT Elana, Zico and Faty.
The group started off from Stanley in the morning after some pictures and interviews were taken by BFBS radio and Penguin TV. The journey began as we set off on our trip along the Stanley road towards Mount Pleasant complex. The overall walk took us 8 gruelling hours over hard, uneven rocky terrain and even though the weather was terrible with cold wind, rain and snow for a large percentage of the day, morale was kept high and the team all had time to appreciate and remember why we had arrange the event in the first place.
We decided to arrange the walk so that we could remember those that have fought in the Falkland’s war and other conflicts around the world. We also wanted to raise money for a great cause that is close to a lot of our hearts. The National Military Working Dog Memorial UK is a UK based charity that opened in 2017. Their sole purpose is to establish a memorial to commemorate the Military Working dogs who served their country in both world wars and subsequent conflicts as in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The memorial that will be created, once the £150,000 target has been raised, is made up of four Bronze dog statues which represent all four branches of the UK’s Armed Forces. The four dogs that the National military working dog memorial will be using are: Judy representing the Royal Navy, Theo representing the British Army and Buster the AES RAF Police Mascot and Lucky representing the Royal Air Force.
After a long hill filled day everyone made it back to Mount Pleasant with no injuries and morale was even higher than when we started. Although it was a long day it was a big achievement for all the handlers and our military working dogs. It is safe to say that it was an enjoyable day for all but sleep was definitely needed that evening.
Once the charity money that had been donated from family, friends, Falkland Islands residence and personnel from around MPC had been counted up we have come to a total of £400.
