Handler: Geoff Gardiner
Breed: Belgian Malinois
DOB: 6/11/2011
Department: IL-TF1
Function: Search and Rescue
Years Worked: 2001 – 2022

K9 Molson started training with Illinois Task Force One since she arrived with the Gardiner family. She was certified at 18 months old and continued to train and certify until her retirement in 2022.

During her time with the Task Force she deployed to two major incidents. The first was in Fairdale, Illinois. Unfortunately, two people were killed by this tornado. Below is the before picture with our search pattern for that day and a picture of the actual environment we were in.

Our second deployment was to Sublette, IL In this incident a large tornado that was on the ground for a significant amount of time, struck ” the Largest Trailer Park in North America” The first picture is a map of the West portion of the park. If you zoom in, each of those rectangle is one trailer. Conditions were challenging, but we didn’t find any victims and got to meet some nice people along the way.