Thursday, May 05, 2011

79 Navy SEALS & One Scout Dog

There were 80 armed and armored commandos involved in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound -- 79 Navy SEALS and one scout dog. While the breed has not been revealed, it probably was a German shepherd, although SEALS also use Newfoundlands on some missions.

While the SEALS use Newfies on-water based missions, smaller German shepherds are typically the dogs of choice for a mission like the one that took out the Al Qaeda leader. Some of these dogs are trained to silently locate booby traps and snipers and other concealed enemies. Their keen sense of smell and hearing make them far more effective at detecting dangers than humans, and the best scout dogs have dispositions somewhere between docile tracking dogs and aggressive attack dogs.

More here and here.

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