When Lane Kjellsen retired from U.S. Army Special Operations, his work with the military was far from over.

Six and a half years ago, with one business partner, Jim Lynch, K2 Solutions Inc., was formed in Moore County. It has since served the military in the areas of K9 training, logistical support, intelligence, and research and development.

K2 Solutions now employs 110 people, most of whom are also retired Special Operations personnel or other retired military with various specialty backgrounds.

The company has full-time employees working in Washington D.C., Camp Lejeune, Fort Bragg and has several people deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of the company’s largest programs is K9 training and the company is looking to bring that program into Richmond County.

K2 Solutions trainers train Labrador retrievers to be bomb-sniffing dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been credited with savings countless lives during the two wars, and are halfway through a year-long $8.7 million contract with the U.S. Marine Corps.

The contract cost includes kenneling of the dogs, food and medical care during the period of performance, team integration training and contractor field support services to assist the Marines after deployment.

In the company’s promotional video, Kjellsen tells the story of a friend who recently returned from a deployment and sent him a two-line e-mail.

“He said he learned two things while deployed,” Kjellsen said. “One was that dogs save lives, and two, that there weren’t enough dogs.”

With the terrorist groups overseas using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) as their main weapon, the use of dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan has become increasingly important.

Recently, K2 Solutions purchased 125 acres in Richmond County to serve as its main K9 training facility. They initially tried to purchase land in Moore County, where the administrative side of the business is headquartered, but through misconceptions and a long, tedious permitting and re-zoning process, the company decided on Richmond County for its new location.

“As economic developer I think it would be a great thing for Richmond County,” said County Manager Rick Sago. “They’re military related and we’ll be thrilled to have them doing business in Richmond County.”

The 125 acres near Derby will have kennels, classrooms and training facilities once the project is complete.

While some of the training will be done on the site, K2 Solutions also works out agreements with area farmers and business owners to conduct training off-site in fields, warehouses and offices. Right now the K9 program works at sites in Moore, Hoke, Scotland and Lee counties. It hopes to add Richmond County to the list.

“One of the most important things with this program is we’re training the dogs for a task, not for a case,” Kjellsen said. “The dog has to know what his task his regardless of the environment. The Richmond site would be the main training station, but they would still be required to train off-site in different areas. It’s critical to how the dog will work half a world away.”

Another the part of the training is getting the dogs acclimated not only to sniffing out these explosives, but hearing them as well.

Occasionally during the training, K2 trainers will set off a real or simulated charge.

“These dogs have to be conditioned to hear that noise,” Kjellsen said. “The vast majority will be pre-recorded and played on loud-speakers at the training facility, or propane simulations.”

But this part of the training should not be loud enough, or regular enough, to disturb any neighboring property owners, Kjellsen said.

Kjellsen said the K9 program is always in some phase of training.

“The first thing we do is assess and select dogs for the program,” he said. “Then we train the dogs, then we certify them for the Marine Corps. Then the Marine Corps sends their Marines and they get trained to be a dog handler with their dog. Once the training is complete, we send our trainers with the Marine Corps handler to military exercises to advise them during those exercises, then the Marine and the dog get ready to deploy.

“If there’s a gap between those exercises and deployment, the dogs will come back to K2 solutions for sustainment training. Then there’s post-deployment when the dog returns to us for evaluation and assessment to see if it can be maintained and continue.”

If for some reason the dog can’t be re-used in the bomb detection mode, it can be put to work as a search dog, or work for the TSA, border patrol, or other government agency. Once the dogs are certified through this program, under this contract, K2 Solutions is just the caretaker of the dogs, the U.S. Government has ownership.

“The most important thing is that, while we’re a private company in business for profit, the most important thing is we’re supporting our war fighters,” Kjellsen said. “The things these dogs are going to do is saving countless numbers of lives for our Marines, and we’re proud of what we do.”

The dogs in this program undergo training every day, and as much as it is work for the dogs, the training is done in a way that is enjoyable, with rewards for a job well done, playtime and compassion. The dogs work hard, but the trainers know that it’s important to train the dogs to love the work.

Kjellsen said he had the idea to get into this kind of work because of his hobby of training labs for field trials and sporting events in the area.

“I competed in it for years,” Kjellsen said. “Then when I was in military Special Operations using patrol dogs and explosive detection became a big deal in the tactical sense. That brought this together. But there’s a whole lot of experience in this company that has nothing to do with me.”

Lynch, who is the chief operating officer, said this sporting dog community is where K2 gets a lot of its dogs.

Kjellsen has been in Moore County since 1993. He served in the Army from 1993 until 2004. Lynch had also lived in Moore County while in the Army and returned at the request of Kjellsen to start the business.

“As a result of this contract, we’ve hired around 50 people in and around this area,” Kjellsen said. “We have employees in Richmond County, Scotland County, Moore County, even from South Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, Texas and Louisiana, and they’ve bought houses here and live in these communities, so not only is our business benefiting the military, it’s benefiting the communities we work in.”

K2 received the one-year contract with the Marines for the K9 program in August. The company is expecting a re-compete any day now and is hoping to have all its ducks in a row in Richmond County before that happens. The company is still in the permitting phase and is specifically waiting on obtaining its environmental permits.

“We wouldn’t be investing in Richmond County if we didn’t think we could re-compete,” Kjellsen said.

“The more development we have done by the time the re-compete happens, the better,” Lynch said. “It looks better for the government, the more we have in place.”

Until the permitting process is complete and K2 is given the green-light, the dogs are being kenneled in another county.

If K2 wins the contract, the company will likely have a five-year contract with the U.S. Marine Corps for the program.

For more information on K2 solutions, visit their Web site at www.k2si.com.

Staff writer Eren Tataragasi can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or at etataragasi@yourdailyjournal.com.