Sarbi the Explosive Detection Dog made military history with a wet nose and a Purple Cross

The story of Sarbi the war dog makes for one of Australia’s most heartwarming military stories.

Sarbi, an explosive detection dog for the Australian Army, received RSPCA's most prestigious animal bravery award the Purple...

It’s Afghanistan on September 2, 2008. It’s not hard to imagine Sarbi’s fear as enemy bullets pepper the desert earth around her paws, and rocket-propelled grenades explode around her.

Sarbi and her handler, Sergeant David Simpson, are wounded. Gunfire has severed Sarbi’s leash and she is running loose in the middle of a fierce Taliban ambush from which there is nowhere to hide.

It’s the same military action in which Trooper Mark Donaldson will earn a Victoria Cross.

In the din and confusion, Sarbi runs towards Simpson when a volley of ammunition frightens her and she limps away into the Afghan desert. As an explosive detection dog, or EDD, she has saved the lives of untold Australian soldiers. But now Simpson wonders if he will ever see her again.

What happened after that ambush of a combined Australian, US and Afghan patrol in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, would make Sarbi a canine legend and touch the hearts of a nation.

It would cement her place in the history of war dogs. One of their earliest recorded uses was in 1750BC when Hammurabi, King of Babylon, equipped his army with canines. Ancient Egyptians used dogs against enemy warriors, and the Greeks depicted dogs in their murals of the Battle of Marathon against the Persians.

Paddy was a stray who went ashore at Gallipoli. and helped boost morale until he was killed by shrapnel.

In Australia, countless military dog stories include that of Paddy, the feisty former stray that went ashore on Gallipoli with army surgeon Dr Joseph Beeston. Paddy was a wonderful mascot, boosting morale in the hell of the Dardanelles until he died from shrapnel wounds.

Although Sarbi was a highly trained war dog rather than a mascot, she earned the affection of all the soldiers who knew her. Born in 2002, she was pooch to a family in the NSW Southern Highlands. The Labrador-Newfoundland cross was black with a lightning strike of white down her chest. But when Sarbi was two, her family moved to the city and advertised her in the paper. Corporal Murray Young was recruiting for the Army’s EDD program. Impressed with her retrieval instincts, he took Sarbi to an army training facility in Moorebank where she graduated in November 2005. Her trainer and handler was Sgt Simpson.

In April 2007 Sarbi and Simpson were dispatched to Afghanistan as part of Operation Slipper. When two EDDs were killed during Sarbi’s seven-month tour of duty, there was no disguising the danger of her job.

Major General John Cantwell with Sarbi prior to her boarding a plane for Australia, at the Australian forces staging area in the UAE.

In June 2008 Sarbi and Simpson were on their second deployment in Afghanistan when the September 2 ambush left nine of the 12 allied personnel wounded. In the days after the ambush, Sarbi found her way back to camp. Heartbreakingly, Afghan guards mistook her for a stray and shooed her away.

Simpson returned to Australia hoping against hope that his dog would be found safe. Incredibly, almost 14 months after the ambush, a US Special Forces soldier came across an Afghan man in a remote part of Uruzgan with a dog that looked like Sarbi.

Sarbi with her Puprple Cross, the RSPCA’s most prestigious animal bravery award, at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

The soldier brought her to the Australian base at Tarin Kot where Cpl Young identified her as Sarbi. Her microchip left no doubt about it. She and Simpson were joyously reunited when Simpson returned to Afghanistan in April 2010, and in May Sarbi’s journey home began. She spent 2011 helping to train new handlers and dogs at Holsworthy.

That year, in a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial, Sarbi received the Purple Cross — the RSPCA’s highest award for animal bravery. Top brass in attendance included Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie. “I am thrilled that the RSPCA has chosen to honour Sarbi, and by extension, all of the army’s working dogs and their handlers with this award,” he said.

Sarbi was in well-earned retirement with Simpson and his family when she developed a brain tumour. She died on March 27 this year at the age of 12.

“Sarbi will live on in everyone’s hearts and minds and I hope that her story of perseverance and determination will inspire you to do whatever you can to achieve your goals and dreams,” Simpson said.

A remarkable story of canine valour had come to a peaceful end.

Military dogs will be a special focus of the Dog Lovers Show on August 15 and 16 at the Royal Hall of Industries and the Hordern Pavilion, dogloversshow.com.au

Originally published as Sarbi the Explosive Detection Dog made military history with a wet nose and a Purple Cross