How a Military Dog Named Conan Stopped a Hidden Suicide Bomber

In a video on Mike Ritland's channel, a speaker recounts how a military working dog named Conan found and stopped a suicide bomber his team had missed, and talks about what losing a dog does to the person who handles it.

Snapshot

A speaker on Mike Ritland's channel tells how the dog Conan sensed a hidden bomber his team had overlooked on a supposedly cleared objective and died in the blast before the man could get close, and recalls another dog, Pepper, lost in Iraq. He says watching Conan's handler changed his view, arguing a handler can mourn a dog more than a teammate because the dog relies on him completely.

Key points

• A cleared objective: A headquarters element of about eight operators believed the objective had been cleared and had relaxed when Conan locked onto something, ears forward and body rigid.
• The release: His handler trusted the change in posture and let him go. Conan ran to a spot the team had already swept, where a man in a suicide vest was hidden in a tight space with a detonator in each hand.
• Ten paces: The man was about ten paces from the group. When Conan reached him, he set off the vest, and the blast killed the dog well short of the team. The speaker says there was "nothing we could have done" had the bomber closed that distance.
• Another loss: The video also describes Pepper, a dog lost in Iraq after going after a man hiding along a riverbank, and how hard her handler took it.

Quick take

The speaker admits he once brushed off other handlers' grief over their dogs, but says watching Conan's handler after the blast changed his view. The video argues that handlers can feel a dog's death more than a teammate's because the dog depends on them for everything, much like a young child, and it describes working dogs as fully trusting and selfless.

Watch the full video: Mike Ritland