The Small Dog With a Big Personality Read Online Free PDF Page A

teeth at the gunmen. The suspects, outnumbered, reversed their vehicles and escaped south over the border. No one was hurt that day but 10 days later they were not so lucky. Once again a helicopter patrol commanded by Major Woodrow spotted a lorry and a van acting suspiciously and went in to take a look. It was a trap. Automatic rifles and machine guns batteredthe helicopter. The pilot was hit in the face with shrapnel and Major Woodrow sustained a number of gunshot wounds to his legs and was airlifted to Musgrave hospital in Belfast but not before he handed over to the new regiment on site. The soldiers managed to contain the damage but the helicopter was crippled by shots to the rotor blades as it made its way back to base.
    I never saw Rat again, and I insist that he will always be Rat to the Grenadiers. I was airlifted to hospital after that and to be honest my mind was still on what we had just encountered and how the men were going to survive this and get back to duties. The Guards were to be posted to Germany next so there was no time to dwell. We did our job in Ireland. We did what we were there to do.
    The Army never underestimated the Opposition. To those who were posted to Northern Ireland this was real soldiering. This was what all their training was about and a test of their ability to contain the activities of that formidable and unpredictable organization.
    As the men of the Grenadiers prepared to follow their company commander out of the base Rat sensed something was wrong. Fielding recalls how the dog glued himself to his heels, almost afraid that the soldier would make a move without him. Rat was amongst heroes and with men who had not only served with him, they had saved his life. Keith Regan, who had saved Rat’s life after the petrol-bomb attack, received the BEM for his service in Crossmaglen. Kevin Kinton had been injured several times during his tour of duty and for him the friendship of the little brown dog was something that helped keep him grounded: the dog was a touchstone for kindness amidst the hostility. For Fielding, the parting was particularly painful. Man and dog had become inseparable. At one point Fielding made plans to take Rat home to England, but that proved to be impossible as the battalion was to transfer to Germany soon after.
    Rat was there to see the men take the helicopter out of the base. One by one they patted the dog’s head before they boarded. As the last man stepped into the chopper Rat looked towards the door and began to runto it. ‘I could tell Rat was going to try and leap into the helicopter and he wasn’t always that good at it,’ said Fielding. ‘I had to pick him up and take him to the man who was taking over from me. I have no doubt at all that he knew we were leaving him and might never see any of us again. All I can say is that he had been a blessing to all of us while we were there. So far as any dog could, he had made us happy.’ Rat whined and struggled to run after the helicopter. Fielding admitted that it ‘almost broke my heart’.
    Life with the Queen’s Regiment was not the same as it had been with the Grenadiers for Rat. For a start he was called Rats, not Rat, and although that didn’t bother him at all he was slow to attach himself to any one man. He went back to sleeping under bunks rather than lying in them and he drifted between the soldiers, perhaps looking for his old friends before he committed to making new ones. He was not quite the same dog, but then he was battle scarred, and maybe the ravages of the bullets, petrol bombs, shrapnel and other injuries acquired leaping in and out of helicopters and Scarrycans were having an effect. Or maybe it was theemotional strain of losing another group of friends and starting all over again.
    But there were some of Rats’s old habits that did not disappear with the Grenadiers. His liking for chasing cars was always going to be an accident waiting to happen. Vehicle checkpoints were always fun for