By Jim Lamb
On Sunday, 27 October 2019, a dog named after a late-night
talk show host chased a terrorist wearing a suicide vest into
a network of tunnels. The dog was Conan, a Belgian Malinois
attached to Delta Force. The terrorist was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
self-proclaimed “caliph” of the Islamic State of Iraq. The
place was Barisha, a village in northwestern Syria.
What happened next sounds like a scene from an action movie.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest, killing
himself; Conan was injured while in hot pursuit. A month later,
on 25 November 2019, the four-year-old Special Operations
Veteran who’d been on about fifty combat missions made a
surprise visit to the White House where President Donald J.
Trump called him “probably the world’s most famous dog,”
adding the descriptions “tough cookie,” “incredible,” and
“ultimate fighter.”
General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put
it this way: “The dog… performed a tremendous service, as
they all do in a variety of situations.”
Conan wasn’t the only heroic war dog to meet a president. In
fact, Stubby, a bull-terrier mix that served in World War One,
met three presidents: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G Harding,
and Calvin Coolidge.
The brave little stray from Connecticut who wandered onto
the parade grounds of Yale University where the 102nd Infantry
Regiment, 26th Infantry Division, trained and went on to
become America’s most decorated dog and the only dog ever
promoted to sergeant.
Stubby served eighteen months and participated in seventeen
battles on the Western Front. Among his heroics, he
served as a mascot, alerted soldiers to put on their masks
when a gas attack took place and comforted the wounded.
His actions were documented in newspapers across America,
and he was the subject of several books.
Also, in 2018, the story of the homeless little heroic dog was
featured in a computer-animated film titled Sergeant Stubby:
An American Hero.
In 1926 Sergeant Stubby died. The New York Times noted
his passing with a lengthy obituary, which began: “Stubby is
dead. He was only a dog and un-pedigreed at that, but he was
the most famous mascot in the AEF (American Expeditionary
“What counts is not
necessarily the size of
it’s the size of the
– Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Fo rt B e n n i ng , GA
Spc. Pamela Gibson, a dog
handler with Warhorse
(top) Fifteen military working dog teams from across the US Arm
trained in preparation for deployment. US Army photo by Patrick Albright,
Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning Public Affairs.
(bottom) Specialist Pamela Gibson, a dog handler with Warhorse
Kanine, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division,
and her military working dog, Sergeant Astra, exit an empty classroom
at a local school after clearing it in Iraq. US Army photo by
Specialist Opal Vaughn, 14th Public Affairs Detachment.
ARMY 245: Call to Duty 95