Dogs In The Army (Read First Post!!)

[hogdriver]

A Bin Laden Hunter on Four Legs

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: May 4, 2011

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 ****y-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!”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/sc...5dog.html?_r=1

[trikora88]

In August 2010, The Register, a British online tech publication, reported that "top-secret, super-elite U.S. Navy SEAL special forces are to deploy heavily armoured bulletproof dogs equipped with infrared nightsight cameras and an 'intruder communication system' able to penetrate concrete walls." The article also reported that the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Group had "awarded an $86,000 contract to Canadian firm K9 Storm Inc. for the supply of 'Canine Tactical Assault Vests' for wear by SEAL dogs." The K9 catalogue boasts an array of high-tech canine devices, from storm lights to long lines and leads to an assortment of vests -- assault, aerial insertion, and patrol-SWAT -- which are rated from "excellent" to "good" in protecting the animal from harm due to everything from bullets to ice picks.
Photo Courtesy of K9 Storm

Above, a U.S. soldier with the 10th Special Forces Group and his dog leap off the ramp of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during water training over the Gulf of Mexico as part of exercise Emerald Warrior on March 1. Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez, U.S. Air Force/ DoD

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...r_dog?page=0,0

[hogdriver]

****to, a Special Operations Forces Multi Purpose Canine, successfully jumped out of a CH-47, Chinook helicopter during Emerald Warrior training exercise at Hurlburt Field, Florida in this March 1, 2011 photograph. This was the first time a dog jumped with a team, allowing members to utilize him in real world situations. Emerald Warrior 2011 is a U.S. Special Operations Command-sponsored, multiservice exercise designed to leverage lessons learned from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to provide trained and ready forces to combatant commanders. The New York Times and other United States media have reported that a military canine accompanied Navy SEAL Team Six commandos into a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in a raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

[trikora88]

It's not the gear that makes the dog: Military working dogs (MWDs in Army parlance) may not enjoy all the privileges of being full-fledged soldiers, but the U.S. military no longer considers them mere equipment. (The war dogs deployed to Vietnam during that conflict were classified as "surplus equipment" and left behind.) Today, MWDs are outfitted with equipment of their own -- a range of specialized gear that includes Doggles (protective eye wear), body armor, life vests, gas masks, long-range GPS-equipped vests, and high-tech canine "flak jackets."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...r_dog?page=0,3

[hogdriver]

Cpl. Angelo Melendez gives the command to roll over to his military working dog Rocky, May 3. Handlers spend between 8-14 hours a day training their dogs for missions such as bomb-sniffing, Improvised Explosive Device detecting and vehicle extraction.

Cpl. Angelo Melendez holds back his K-9 military working dog Rocky during a training exercise, May 3. Rocky is capable of a myriad of skills including bomb-sniffing, Improvised Explosive Device detection and vehicle extraction.

[Morris]

Navy SEAL dogs have titanium fangs
http://dvice.com/archives/2011/05/navy-seal-dogs.php

Everything SEAL is quite popular nowadays

[hogdriver]

President Obama met a canine that was also part of the operation.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS...ex.html?hpt=T2

[hogdriver]

Obama also met Cairo, a dog used to help alert the special-operations teams to hidden threats. Cairo is the only member of the raid team to be identified.
The Belgian Malinois was carried off the helicopter by a SEAL and used to scout the compound. It was unclear how Cairo was used.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...e&st_ver=1.0.0

[hogdriver]

A U.S. K9 soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) uses a sniffer dog as part of security operations after a two-day assault against Taliban in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, May 9, 2011.

[santana]

From British Armed Forces Thread!!!

Army dog handler Jess and her High Assurance Search dog, Ninjo.Photo credit to read - Sergeant Alison Baskerville RLC

[santana]

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Brandon Fipps, a military working dog handler, and his dog Pablo, both attached to India Company, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, pause during a security patrol in the green zone of Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 1, 2011.

[Hammer_G]

Brits in Afghanistan

[santana]

From Russian Photos

[hogdriver]

U.S. Army soldier and a U.S. Army military working dog attached to Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Parachute Infantry Division, scouted the perimeter for improvised explosive ordanance near Nalgham, Afghanistan, April 21, 2011. The soldiers conduct searches of the area in order to disrupt and deter enemy operations.

[santana]

From Ecuador´s Army Thread