Stray Dogs History
2016
With the formation of the Western Coalition, the mostly former NATO Command is given the task of aggregating and rearranging units from the various member militaries into a single cohesive force. Because there are pressing world events that need military attention, aggregation is carried out from the top down. Several elite units, the cream of the crop, from the WC member nations best marine, airborne, spec op, heavy infantry, armored cavalry, and close air support services are formed into a new, next generation ‘Strike Division’, known as the WC 125th Combined Arms Strike Force. The new force is equipped with the latest in high tech communications and assault hardware, and can be mobilized on short notice to almost anywhere in the world where they can quickly deliver a rapid offensive strike where needed.
The new division sees its first action when it is sent to reinforce struggling WC forces besieged in their fortifications in Iraq. Facing an overwhelming Militant army, made up mostly of surviving elements of the Iranian army, the 125th engages and destroys two armored divisions and well into 5 digits worth of infantry. Several follow up strikes cripple militant supply lines and cause a massive rout of the invasion.
2016-2017
The 125th remains deployed in the Middle East, mostly securing oil fields against militants and saboteurs. They see several low profile actions against paramilitaries and insurgents, all with better than expected results.
2017
The 125th sees heavy action in Iraq where the heavy damage they inflict on Iranian, Syrian, and indigenous forces cannot maintain the Coalition hold on the country. The 125th are the last Coalition forces to leave the country, having covered the retreat of all civilian officials and regular military forces.
2018
Elements of the 125th see heavy action covering the closing down of WC extraction operations and retreat of WC forces from depleted oil fields in the former Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. Several members of the 125th are given awards of valor, many posthumously, for saving their fellow countrymen. This action was the first time that the 125th gained fame back home.
2019
South American Revolutionary [SAFU] forces invade the free [and neutral] state of Panama, attempting to seize control of the Panama Canal and restrict Coalition access to this valuable strategic passageway. Caught off guard, the Coalition command hastily inserts several companies of the 125th some via amphibious landing, some via high altitude low opening drop, some overland via Nicaragua. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the 125th decimates the SAFU forces, inflicting heavy causalities and routing them from the country. In debriefing the affair to the WC civilian ministers, WC Joint Command Chair, General Norman Stanley Velmouth comments that “the 12th are like a goddamn pack of hungry, scrappy, stray dogs that always seem to wander into the middle of the heaviest action”. The rank and file of the division takes pride in the characterization and begin adorning their hardware with various make-shift representations of ‘scruffy’ looking dogs as a badge of divisional honor and braggadocio. Different companies and platoons within the division often adopt different styles of ‘Stray Dog’ emblems.
2021
The 125th, now commonly referred to just as ‘The Stray Dogs’, return to duty, this time in Central Asia where they are quietly placed under the WC Asian Central Command and stationed in Afghanistan. Late in the year hostilities flare up between Red Star forces in south western China and Coalition forces across the border in occupied Pakistan when RS forces attempt to annex several hundred square kilometers of disputed Pakistani real estate. The WC Central Mountain Division falls back, seemingly surrendering the territory, and the Chinese advance in to occupy it. However, the Stray Dogs hit the exposed northern flank of the Red Star advance, devastating their core armored and air support units, cutting off the main body of the occupying force, including its over eager Command and Control units, thereby isolating them from the Chinese border and their support and supply lines. Coalition Command then quietly demands a retreat recognizing the Coalitions inalienable right to the territory and surrendering any claim to it, holding the isolated Chinese army as hostage. Weeks later the treaty is signed and the Red Star forces allowed to return home, the territory now established as Western Coalition.
2023
During the unseasonably warm and stormy spring of 2023, Coalition command deploy the 125th to Alaska to stand guard over key oil platforms in the Bearing Sea, which the Red Star have been conducting naval exercises very close too. However bad fortune strikes when a category 5 hurricane, the first hurricane ever to hit Alaska, strikes southern Alaska, flooding and devastating the city of Anchorage and causing severe civilian loses. The Chinese use the storm as cover and attempt to seize the oil platforms. The Stray Dogs fight off the attacking Red Star forces while simultaneously assuming a civil defense role, rescuing the lives of countless civilians and maintain order. With much media exposure of their heroics, the Stray Dogs gain a mythic quality in the public mind, and join the ranks of famous and distinguished military units. However, the division suffers severe causalities and after the incident the unit must be sidelined at divisional headquarters near Calgary, Alberta for almost six Months.
2024
Reconstituted and rejuvenated, the Stray Dogs are retained under WC Asia Central Command and deployed to Afghanistan where they are folded into regular defensive duties and begin preparing for the inevitable continuation of hostilities.
