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Jeremy Leming's dog, Greif, is one of nine team dogs certified at the Type II basic level that the team wants evaluated for possible Type I advanced certification. -- Mpozi Mshale Tolbert / The Star

The search-and-rescue dogs of Indiana Task Force 1 do some impressive stuff -- they even fly for free.

But it's their owners in need of a ride.

The Indianapolis-based task force, whose dogs and humans gained acclaim for their recovery efforts in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, is struggling to finance airline tickets needed to get 16 Labradors, border collies and other mutts fully disaster-certified.

They don't seek money. They seek miles.

Anne McCurdy, manager of research at Methodist Hospital who oversees the K9 element for the task force, has worked deals with airlines to convert donors' accumulated and unused frequent flier miles into airplane seats for the dogs' handlers (dogs don't have to pay a fare and get to sit at the handlers' feet in the plane).

Officials are trying to get handlers to the Jan. 14-16 canine evaluations in College Station, Texas. There are similar tests Feb. 18-20 in Virginia Beach, Va.

"Our problem is that we have only four dogs that have certified to the Type I advanced level, and we have nine certified at the Type II basic level who need to take the advanced test, but we can't afford it," McCurdy said.

Depending on their qualifications, dogs are used to tiptoe their way on top of and through collapsed structures, using their super-senses to sniff out human victims.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversees 28 national task forces through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And FEMA wants its K9 portion of the task force to each have a dozen Type I certified dogs by 2006.

Quietly, the Indiana task force is trying to become the largest of its kind in the nation.

"We're ahead of the game, the envy of the country, because we have so many dogs," said Tom Neal, a Warren Township firefighter detailed to coordinate training for the task force.

One donor already is Eli Lilly and Co. system analyst Issac Swanson, who doesn't even own a pet dog but was moved to give away one ticket to the team.

"I've seen other opportunities to use my miles or donate them, but this was such a unique opportunity. It felt like a worthwhile cause," Swanson said.

The Indiana force was the first task force in the nation to have 12 FEMA-certified dogs. Now it has 13, with seven in training.

In the upcoming out-of-state tests, volunteers are hidden in a variety of vast, manmade, underground debris fields to simulate a real-life structure collapse.

The dogs, whose usual reward for success is getting to play with a toy, have to successfully "hit" on the hidden. In some cases, the handlers don't even know how many humans are hidden.

"It's a hard test. It's a difficult test to do," McCurdy said.

"And our dogs can do it. We have the best FEMA canine program in the country. But our problem is that we're so good and we have so many good dogs to test that FEMA doesn't give us enough money to test."

FEMA actually supplements the funding of 13 dogs, so a lack of donated miles would not cripple the program. But McCurdy points out that the civilian dog handlers donate many things themselves, such as the twice-monthly unpaid training time, plus the commute.

The Indiana task force is able to supplement other states' teams that lack enough certified dogs. At the World Trade Center disaster, Indiana loaned a dog to the Missouri task force, for example.

The task force has been lending itself to local needs, too. This year, it established a wilderness and human remains detection branch, called the Canine Urban Response Team.

"I don't think it hurts to pursue that one. It seems like we had an increase over the summer with people missing," said Joe Anderson, chief of the Washington Township Fire Department. He is also on the task force oversight board.

"It has a positive impact locally."

The Web site www.intf1curt .org/intf1_teams.shtml has information about the team -- along with photographs of the dogs.

If you have miles to donate, call McCurdy at (317) 403-2499 or send her an e-mail at amccurdy @intf1curt.org.

Call Star reporter Tom Spalding at (317) 444-2761.

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