[nagdu] Fw: To Serve and Protect, and Sniff Out Trouble, an International Dog of Mystery.

[Ed Meskys]

Subject: To Serve and Protect, and Sniff Out Trouble, an International Dog 
of Mystery.


To Serve and Protect, and Sniff Out Trouble, an International Dog of 
Mystery.
NY Times Thursday, 2011_05_05
By GARDINER HARRIS. The identities of all 80 members of the American 
commando
team
who thundered into Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden are the
subject
of intense speculation, but perhaps none more so than the only member with 
four
legs.
Little is known about what may be the nation's most courageous dog. Even its
breed
is the subject of great interest, although it was most likely a German 
shepherd
or
a Belgian Malinois, military sources say. But its use in the raid reflects 
the
military's
growing dependence on dogs in wars in which improvised explosive devices 
have
caused
two-thirds of all casualties. Dogs have proved far better than people or
machines
at quickly finding bombs.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of United States forces in Afghanistan, 
said
last
year that the military needed more dogs. The capability they bring to the 
fight
cannot
be replicated by man or machine,' he said.
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
checked
the compound for explosives and even sniffed door handles to see if they 
were
booby-trapped.
And given that Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a narrow, dark hole 
beneath a
mud
shack in Iraq, the Seal team might have brought the dog in case Bin Laden 
had
built
a secret room into his compound.
Dogs are very good at detecting people inside of a building,' Major Roberts
said.
Another use may have been to catch anyone escaping the compound in the first
moments
of the raid. A shepherd or a Malinois runs twice as fast as a human.
Tech Sgt. Kelly A. Mylott, the kennel master at Langley Air Force Base in
Virginia,
called dogs ideal for getting someone who is running away without having to
shoot
them. When the dogs go after a suspect, they're trained to bite and hold 
them,'
Sergeant
Mylott said.
Some dogs are big enough that, when they leap on a suspect, the person tends 
to
drop
to the ground, Sergeant Mylott said. Others bite arms or legs. Different 
dogs do
different things,' she said. But whatever they do, it's very difficult for 
that
person
to go any further.
Finally, dogs can be used to pacify an unruly group of people --  
particularly in
the Middle East. There is a cultural aversion to dogs in some of these
countries,
where few of them are used as pets,' Major Roberts said. Dogs can be very
intimidating
in that situation.
Sergeant Mylott said that dogs got people's attention in ways that weapons
sometimes
did not. Dogs can be an amazing psychological deterrent,' she said.
There are 600 dogs serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that number is 
expected
to
grow substantially over the next year, Ensign Brynn Olson of the United 
States
Central
Command said. Particularly popular with the troops are the growing number of
Labrador
retrievers who wander off-leash 100 yards or more in front of patrols to 
ensure
the
safety of the route. A Silver Star, one of the Navy's highest awards, was
awarded
posthumously in 2009 to a dog named Remco after he charged an insurgent's
hide-out
in Afghanistan.
The training of dogs in Navy Seal teams and other Special Operations units 
is
shrouded
in secrecy. Maj. Wes Ticer, a spokesman for United States Special Operations
Command,
said the dogs' primary functions 'are finding explosives and conducting 
searches
and patrols.
Dogs are relied upon,' he continued, 'to provide early warning for potential
hazards,
many times, saving the lives of the Special Operations Forces with whom they
operate.
Last year, the Seals bought four waterproof tactical vests for their dogs 
that
featured
infrared and night-vision cameras so that handlers -- holding a three-inch
monitor
from as far as 1,000 yards away -- could immediately see what the dogs were
seeing.
The vests, which come in coyote tan and camouflage, let handlers communicate
with
the dogs with a speaker, and the four together cost more than $86,000. Navy 
Seal
teams have trained to parachute from great heights and deploy out of 
helicopters
with dogs.
The military uses a variety of breeds, but by far the most common are the 
German
shepherd and the Belgian Malinois, which 'have the best overall combination 
of
keen
sense of smell, endurance, speed, strength, courage, intelligence and
adaptability
to almost any climatic condition,' according to a fact sheet from the 
military
working
dog unit.
Suzanne Belger, president of the American Belgian Malinois Club, said she 
was
hoping
the dog was one of her breed 'and that it did its job and came home safe. 
But
Laura
Gilbert, corresponding secretary for the German Shepherd Dog Club of 
America,
said
she was sure the dog was her breed 'because we're the best!