Astrid retires, new K-9 follows in great pursuit

  • Published
  • By Janaé Daniels
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. --  Astrid, the Belgian Malinois who has helped AEDC Security officers scout for explosives or sniff suspicious items for six years, hung up her leash and settled into retirement Aug. 31. 

At almost nine, Astrid is experiencing medical problems which forced her to retire, but retirement is only the beginning for this four-legged friend. 

"I get to take her home with me," Jason Layne, Astrid's last handler and AEDC Detection Unit, K-9, officer said. "She will get to enjoy her retirement like we all hope to one day." 

According to AEDC Police Chief Rick Trull, Astrid was on the latter half of her career. 

"It is not unusual for police dogs to retire after about five-seven years of good service," Chief Trull said. "We put Astrid to work when she was three years old, and, at that age, she had already been working in her profession and training daily before coming to work with us. 

"Astrid has been a phenomenal asset to the Arnold Police Department as well as many of the local departments in our area that requested her assistance." 

One of Astrid's career highlights was placing second in two events in the 2008 Olympics at the Vohne Liche Kennels (VLK) in Denver, Ind., with Layne as her handler. 

Astrid was acquired from VLK in 2003. 

VLK is a full service K-9 training facility where the best of the best go for highly trained Police Service dogs. 

In operation since 1993, VLK has trained police and military service dogs for more than 2,000 law enforcement and government agencies to include the National Security Agency, Pentagon Police, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Army. 

During her career at AEDC, Astrid has been requested for mutual aid by the FBI, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Grundy, Coffee and Franklin County Sheriff Departments and Homeland Security. 

Since Oct.1, 2003 when the canine team was put on the ATA contract, AEDC has had three dogs. 

The first dog, Nelton, was also Belgian Malinois, but was diagnosed with a non-correctable medical condition shortly after coming to work at AEDC. The replacement for Nelton was Astrid. 

"Astrid came to work with us in early 2004 and has been one of our most dedicated workers," the chief said. "I never saw her have a bad or off day; she lived to work. Astrid's medical condition has forced her retirement now and Bikkel is our third dog." 

Bikkel, a three-year-old Belgian Malinois who also came from Vohne Liche Kennels, is replacing Astrid as AEDC's detection and tracking dog. 

Bikkel recently came home from a two-year deployment in Iraq. According to Layne, Bikkel's performance in war-time was beyond extraordinary. 

"He was stationed in Baghdad in the green zone for almost two years," Layne explains. "During that time he did 200 plus track sweeps, 500-plus bomb sweeps and, just the month of October he performed 28 missions." 

The main mission for a K-9 to be deployed is to perform street sweeps, improvised explosive device (IED) sweeps, post blast sweeps and much more. 

"He was chosen for deployment because his detection and tracking capability are so advanced," Layne said. 

With the fast pace of being deployed Layne said Bikkel will be just as busy at AEDC. 

"I think Bikkel's workload will be close to the same due to the utilization and training requirements at Arnold. He will be very busy working and training." 

As in the past, employees may have seen the team just about anywhere on AEDC performing their mission. They routinely conduct checks at all gates, in parking lots, in randomly selected facilities and even in wide open spaces. 

According to Chief Trull, Bikkel is already living up to his predecessor's work ethic. 

"He absolutely loves to work and his detection rate is flawless," Chief Trull said. "We're extremely fortunate to have found such a capable replacement for Astrid. The good news story here is that Astrid gets the well-deserved retirement that she's worked for with a family that will love and care for her; and we get the same quality of detection and support we've grown accustomed to." 

Chief Trull said as with the entire police organization, the canine team provides immediate and proven police and security support for AEDC assets and personnel. 

"We are extremely proud of our history with our two previous dogs and expect great things from our newest team member, Bikkel," he commented.