The daring raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound involved a highly skilled team of professionals – including an explosives detection dog.
Strapped to an assault team member, the unnamed dog was part of one of the most critical military operations our nation has undertaken in the middle east. As Black Hawk helicopters hovered, the dog and his handler were dropped into Bin Laden’s compound on the edge Abbottabad, Pakistan Sunday, joining the assault team as they ferreted out and assassinated one of the most evil terrorists the world has known.
Just last year, Gen. David H. Patraeus pointed out that the military would benefit from the use of more dogs. “The capability they bring to the fight cannot be replicated by man or machine,” he said. “By all measures of performance, their yield outperforms any asset we have in our inventory.”
photo:K9Storm
In an interview with The New York Times, Maj. William Roberts, commander of the Defense Department’s Military Working Dog Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, said the dog on the raid could have served a variety of functions. First, the dog could have quickly checked the compound for explosives and even sniffed the handle of the door to the house to see if it was booby-trapped.
While the details of that night remain foggy, and we may never learn the name of the dog involved, it is worth noting that dogs have taken part in a number of important military operations of late, including the capture of Saddam Hussein and in the killing of the Iraqi dictator’s two sons. Armor clad German Shepherds have been playing a major role in SAS raids in both Iraq and Afghanistan, often donning oxygen masks as they jump from aircraft, four legged forces descending on our enemies in the name of freedom.
