By Alex Horton
October 29, 2019 at 1:45 PM EDT
The artillery barrages of World War I were long dormant when Gen. John J. Pershing readied an award for a wounded combat veteran. The soldier took shrapnel to the chest in the brutal Seicheprey campaign in France, survived gas attacks and caught a German scout.
Pershing, the commander of U.S. forces in the war, summarized his valor in a speech and pinned a medal to the soldier, who did not say a word that day in July 1921.
“He merely licked his chops and wagged his diminutive tail,” the New York Times wrote of Stubby, a Boston bull terrier already famous as a four-legged version of Sgt. Alvin York.
Stubby walking in a homecoming parade for World War I veterans in April 1919. (Pat Eaton-Robb/Connecticut State Library/AP)
On Sunday, another dog was added to the hall of canine heroes: A Belgian Malinois that tore after Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a darkened tunnel in Syria. Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest as the dog closed in, and the pup suffered minor wounds before returning to duty.
A photo of the dog, assigned to the Army’s secretive Delta Force, was posted by President Trump, who said the dog did “a GREAT JOB” in the Saturday raid. The dog’s name is classified, Trump and the Pentagon said, though Newsweek reported its name is Conan (after the comedian, not the barbarian).
With a tweet and photo, Trump feeds intrigue about a classified military dog in Baghdadi raid
The military working dog injured tracking down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a tunnel beneath his compound in Syria. (White House/AP)
That very good dog is part of a long, scruffy line of war dogs that have served alongside U.S. troops for more than a century. And in each major campaign, dogs have become remarkably agile on battlefields as some of the most fearsome and effective weapons.
“They have to adapt the same way humans adapt,” said Rebecca Frankel, the author of “War Dogs: Tales of Canine History, Heroism and Love.” As long as combatants plant their feet on soil, Frankel told The Washington Post, “dogs are the best nonhuman partners on the ground.”
October 29, 2019 at 1:45 PM EDT
The artillery barrages of World War I were long dormant when Gen. John J. Pershing readied an award for a wounded combat veteran. The soldier took shrapnel to the chest in the brutal Seicheprey campaign in France, survived gas attacks and caught a German scout.
Pershing, the commander of U.S. forces in the war, summarized his valor in a speech and pinned a medal to the soldier, who did not say a word that day in July 1921.
“He merely licked his chops and wagged his diminutive tail,” the New York Times wrote of Stubby, a Boston bull terrier already famous as a four-legged version of Sgt. Alvin York.
Stubby walking in a homecoming parade for World War I veterans in April 1919. (Pat Eaton-Robb/Connecticut State Library/AP)
On Sunday, another dog was added to the hall of canine heroes: A Belgian Malinois that tore after Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a darkened tunnel in Syria. Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest as the dog closed in, and the pup suffered minor wounds before returning to duty.
A photo of the dog, assigned to the Army’s secretive Delta Force, was posted by President Trump, who said the dog did “a GREAT JOB” in the Saturday raid. The dog’s name is classified, Trump and the Pentagon said, though Newsweek reported its name is Conan (after the comedian, not the barbarian).
With a tweet and photo, Trump feeds intrigue about a classified military dog in Baghdadi raid
The military working dog injured tracking down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a tunnel beneath his compound in Syria. (White House/AP)
That very good dog is part of a long, scruffy line of war dogs that have served alongside U.S. troops for more than a century. And in each major campaign, dogs have become remarkably agile on battlefields as some of the most fearsome and effective weapons.
“They have to adapt the same way humans adapt,” said Rebecca Frankel, the author of “War Dogs: Tales of Canine History, Heroism and Love.” As long as combatants plant their feet on soil, Frankel told The Washington Post, “dogs are the best nonhuman partners on the ground.”
