Military Dog Played Role In Osama Bin Laden Raid

by Dr. Chris

May 8, 2011 According to reports SEAL Team Six had a military working dog along with them when they raided Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. While we are not sure whether it was a German Shepherd or a Belgian Malinois, we do know one dog played a key role in the raid.

The raid that took place on 5/1/11 by a few dozen Navy SEALS and one dog led to the successful capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Dogs working alongside of soldiers has been happening since the civil war and perhaps even thousands of years sooner. Most people estimate that there are over 3,000 dogs currently in the military. This is double the amount since 9/11. Over 500 of those dogs are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to General David Petraeus, he is quoted as saying that “The capability the dogs bring to the fight cannot be replicated by man or machine. By all measures of performance, their yield outperforms any asset we have in our industry. Our Army would be remiss if we failed to invest more in this incredibly valuable resource."

The military working dogs are great at finding improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Unfortunately the Taliban has noticed how great the dogs are at this and have begun targeting them. And even though the military has spent millions of dollars trying to come up with robots and other electronic detection devices, none can match a well trained dog for finding IEDs.

4 More Reasons Why Military Dogs are Used:

1. Can run down suspects quickly, no one can outrun a dog.

2. Better sense of smell, so they can tell if someone is hiding behind walls or under the floor.

3. Can see better in the dark.

4. Strong bite can produce over 500 pounds of pressure.

Military dogs are highly trained and very well cared for because a lot of money and resources are put into them.

In fact last year the SEALs spent over $80,000 on 4 tactical vests for dogs that have armor, night vision cameras, and a speaker so the handlers can communicate with the dogs up to 1,000 yards away.

German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois are the main breeds used by the military, but they have also started using Labrador retrievers as well.

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