Staff Sergeant Fido?

Perhaps this shows that I haven't been on the pointy end in a while, perhaps this is a typo, or perhaps there's some new trend to go with coins and berets for everyone. What's up with this passe use of a not insignificant rank for a military working dog?

Quote:

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Topic: Sgt. Pauley is currently deployed in Northern Iraq and working on Contingency Operating Base (COB) Speicher, Tikrit, Iraq. Pauley is the handler of Staff Sgt. Jack, a German Shepherd, who is trained to attack and find explosives. They have been together for 18 months now as this is Pauley's first working dog and Jack's first handler. Pauley was an MP prior to being a military working dog handler.

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Don't get me wrong, I love the MWDs. And I've seen rank used on occasion, e.g. with Chesty, to include story of it being reduced, in the parade narrative anyway, for his little doggy NJP. But is this now common?

We have several of the off-leash detection dogs with us right now, and the kennel master briefed the staff that the dog is bestowed with a rank greater than the handler, so that the handler has incentive to never mistreat the animal.

The first time I administered the Oath of Enlistment was to a goat. Then I promoted a donkey to SFC...

But I don't think this is a common practice...