By Liz Carter Ben enjoys a dog’s life

When RAF corporal, Rod Stoddart sets off for work from his home at Thomas Street, Holyhead, Ben the Collie always goes with him. Ben is the only RAF Search and Rescue Dog at Valley and, as an integral part of the rescue team, Rod and Ben are kept busy. Rod's main work is in the stores at RAFValley but he is on 24-hour call with a special pager to alert him when the rescue services are called out by the North Wales Police.
Ben is five years old, a sheepdog from a farm in Denbigh acquired by Rod as a pup. Together they have trained and gone out on countless exercises as well as very successful rescue missions. The SARDA dogs work by picking up air carried scent rather than trailing their noses along the ground like a blood hound.

"We have a tremendous back up that we just could not do without,"' says Rod. "Wives, girlfriends, volunteers who act as "bodies" in training exercises, fund raisers to help supply our equipment" these are all wonderful people essential to us" and the mountain rescue teams that back us up. "Just recently Ben picked up the scent of a 68-year-old man lost by a river in Ruthin and as a result manpower put into the area made a successful find. Often working in atrocious weather, the dogs can be equipped with special "light sticks' that are snapped in two to produce. a mix of chemicals that produce a light that affixes to the dog's coat and lasts up to 12 hours. "We look for all kinds of people including old ladies who go missing from hospital grounds, any missing persons as well as attending major disasters like Lockerbie" said Rod

Rod and Ben pass their assessment in 1993.