It was international news when United States armed forces took down Bin Laden, and one of the interesting facts about that event which emerged in the following days was that a dog was involved in this historic event. I didn’t know that until I was looking for Purina coupons online the other day, but it’s actually a pretty amazing story.
The team that took down Bin Laden was composed of 80 members, one of whom had four legs and a tail. Though the dog’s breed has not been certified by the US military, he was likely a Belgian Malinois, a Newfoundland, or a German Shepherd – these breeds are commonly trained for and excel at military service. According to the New York Times, the canine involved in this important mission was strapped to a Navy SEAL and was lowered from a hovering helicopter before the raid of Osama Bin Laden’s compound.
The military often employs dogs for their bomb-sniffing abilities, though they have other capabilities that make them valuable during wartime. Some dogs can locate snipers and boobytraps and then silently warn their human handlers of impending danger, for example. According to the Atlantic, the dog on this SEAL team could have been trained to sniff out enemy troops from as far as two miles away, which would have helped the SEALS pinpoint Bin Laden’s exact location.
Though all dogs have keen sensory perception, the best service dogs have these natural abilities as well as the proper disposition – a personality somewhere between that of docile tracking dogs and that of aggressive attack dogs is considered ideal.
“The capability they bring to the fight cannot be replicated by man or machine,” said General David H. Petraeus said last year.
Contemporary dogs in military roles are officially referred to as Military Working Dogs (MWDs) or are identified by the code K-9, which is also a common designation used for dogs in police roles. The roles of such dogs can be highly varied, but it is rare for them to be used in front line missions such as this, which makes this dog’s role especially fascinating.
Perhaps even cooler is the fact that SEAL dogs are usually outfitted with titanium fangs capable of ripping through an enemy’s protective clothing. Each titanium tooth costs about $2,000, but we equip our human soldiers with state of the art weaponry so it makes sense that we would do the same for service dogs.
I’m sure the brave canine who completed this mission got a lot of treats and belly rubs as a reward for his bravery – and I’m glad he’s earning the recognition he deserves. I’ve owned dogs and used Purina coupons for decades, but I never cease to be amazed by their incredible abilities!
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