The One Left Behind

Three Army Black Hawk helicopters flew just above the treetops without any lights as they headed deep into enemy territory in the dark night. Forty minutes after crossing the enemy border, the lead helicopter radioed the other two that he was commencing a security check of the designated landing zone. Minutes later he radioed that the landing zone was secure and that the Barker had deployed.

Barker was the operational name for the U.S. Army’s latest robotic dog system. Roughly the shape and size of a very large dog, the Barker had tremendous maneuverability that allowed it to go through almost any terrain quickly and with great stealth. Dozens of artificial intelligence sensors allowed Barkers to operate autonomously or under the control of a human handler. Included in the Barker’s capabilities was the ability to identify the difference between enemy and friendly soldiers through enhanced facial recognition. The Barker could also identify areas that had landmines and lead soldiers on safe routes around them. Additionally, the Barker was excellent for transporting needed supplies to soldiers. The Barker had gone in on the first helicopter. The second helicopter carried Max, the unit’s longest serving and best working German Shepherd. A six-man commando team had offloaded from each of the first two helicopters. The two helicopters then departed and maintained a holding pattern a distance away prepared to come in and pick up the two teams on the ground when called.

The third helicopter, carrying only its crew, stayed aloft prepared to provide fire support and exfiltrate team members should it be necessary. It was also assigned the additional task of transporting enemy prisoners, should any be captured.

The target of the mission was an enemy communications station. Located deep in the jungle, it was well hidden and greatly enhanced the enemy’s ability to communicate with its troops. Intelligence suggested that the equipment may have been procured from a second foreign power that was providing technical assistance despite having signed a treaty to the contrary. The commando teams had two objectives—return with any equipment they could and destroy the rest. The commando teams carried enough explosives to leave the communications station as nothing but a large hole in the ground.

The Barker’s mission was to conduct reconnaissance on the planned route the commandos would use to assault the communications station. The Barker would operate well ahead of the commando teams to give them sufficient time to change the route to the target if it became necessary. The Barker had been programmed with a specific route but was allowed to deviate after signaling the team members of a potential danger.

The advancement of Team 1 proceeded smoothly until all of a sudden it didn’t. They were within 1000 meters of the buildings that housed the communications center when the Barker stopped communicating. Team members quickly reset their receive function, but nothing reestablished their ability to monitor and follow the Barker to the target. Without the Barker, the team and the mission were in much greater danger. If the Barker was lost, there was a possibility that advanced technology could be acquired by the enemy, enabling them to replicate and develop the technology more rapidly than they otherwise would.

The overall mission leader was with Team 2. With the Barker now unaccounted for, the mission leader considered his options and after a brief conversation with the dog handler decided on a plan. He would send Max, Team 2’s highly trained veteran military working dog, to attempt to locate the Barker while Team 1 continued to move toward the communications station. The dog handler had confirmed that the Barker, though constructed out of metal alloys that allowed the dog shaped structures to survive small arms fire had been implanted with “dog juice.” The nickname of a military laboratory concoction, dog juice would allow military working canines to track a Barker as it left the scent of dog juice wherever it went. The scent was noticeable to live canines but not discernible to the human nose. Thus, as a last resort, real dogs could track and locate the Barkers. Once given the command, Max began to track.

The Barker had not been destroyed by enemy fire or any type of explosion. What had happened was the electromagnetic pulses used as a protective measure by the communications station had effectively scrambled many of the sensors and communications systems in the Barker. With almost all its sensors inoperable and unable to transmit or receive, the Barker was effectively paralyzed and simply collapsed. Why the Barker’s defenses against an electromagnetic pulse had failed would be the top priority for the team that developed the Barker system once they became aware of the weakness in the system.

Max’s bullet proof vest contained a transmitter that allowed his handler to monitor Max’s progress on a receiver strapped to his forearm. Max started out tracking the Barker in wide swaths but eventually settled into a path that showed an almost direct route to the communication station. About 700 meters from the communications station, Max stopped all movement and remained in one spot. Max had located the Barker and was waiting for the team to make their way to him.

Max sniffed around the Barker and detected no threats. Max positioned himself alongside the Barker in a position that gave him the best observation of the surrounding area. The dense jungle, however, offered little hope for sighting friendly or enemy soldiers that might be coming his way.

The Barker remained immobile but still had a few operational sensors that detected Max’s presence and began a series of inquisitive transmissions to attempt to identify Max. When all his transmissions had failed the Barker sent one final transmission, “Are you real?”

Max could not understand what the Barker was transmitting. He only knew that he had been sent to find it and protect it until his team relieved him of that responsibility. The unit frequently trained as a complete group and the Barker had been part of that training. Thus, Max knew the Barker as part of his team or in dog culture a member of his pack.

Max’s handler found Max dutifully guarding the Barker. He had only a brief opportunity to rub Max’s head and tell him “Good Boy,” when his headset activated with the mission commander ordering all personnel back to the landing zone for immediate evacuation.

The Barker was too heavy for the handler to carry alone. In accordance with protocol, the handler released a lock on the Barker, enabling him to retrieve three small metal boxes from the Barker's internal operating systems. The boxes were the equivalent of an airplane’s black box. When analyzed by technicians, they would allow them to learn what had caused the Barker to cease functioning and develop appropriate defenses.

Before leaving, the handler placed in the body of the Barker a small but powerful explosive device set to go off in five minutes.

The handler gave the command of “Follow” to Max and they started off through the jungle heading for the landing zone at a rapid pace. Obeying his handler’s command, Max remained right on the heels of his handler. The explosive left to destroy the Barker completed its task. The internal workings of the Barker were destroyed, making it impossible to copy or reverse engineer the Barker.

Later, a much larger explosion set by Team 1 obliterated the communications station after they had subdued enemy soldiers operating the station and removed key components that experts would use to determine the origin and capabilities of the communications center. Three enemy soldiers were taken prisoner. They would be transported on the third helicopter.

Less than 30 minutes later, the helicopters had uploaded their teams and prisoners. They flew at maximum speed until they were safely out of enemy held territory.

Back at their home base following mission debriefings and securing of all equipment, the unit met together to toast the success of the mission. Almost everything had gone according to plan. The heist of enemy equipment followed by the destruction of their communications center would seriously hamper future enemy operations for a long time to come. The raucous, celebratory crowd was having a well-deserved opportunity to blow off some steam after a job well done.

Only one member of the team that had gone behind enemy lines was not in the mood to enjoy the occasion. That was Max, who had found the Barker and saved the unit from a potentially significant loss of technology. Max was a wise dog that had learned much from other dogs that had served with the unit as well as the many soldiers that had served. Max had seen soldiers and dogs, living and dead carried out of battle. No one was ever left behind.

As Max looked around at his fellow pack members, he was unable to understand the celebration. One member of the pack did not return. The mood should have been more somber. That was the mood that Max understood when a member of the pack did not return. Max was lost in the confusion of not understanding that the pack member they lost was not real.