President Trump honored “Conan” at the White House, praised his bravery, and awarded him a medal.
At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, the White House, the honor bestowed on Conan must surely have delighted the nearly 55 million dogs kept as pets in American homes.
Conan is a dog serving with a U.S. special forces unit. During the operation against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Conan tracked Baghdadi when, after an attack on his house, he fled and hid in a tunnel.
The ISIS leader had been hiding in a remote town in Syria’s northern province of Idlib. When U.S. forces reached the tunnel near the house, Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest, killing himself. Two children who were with him were also killed in the blast, and Conan was injured as well. However, the injuries were minor, and it was reported that he would recover.
The U.S. Postal Service has issued postage stamps featuring images of specific dog breeds that are used for military and intelligence purposes.
Conan belongs to the Belgian Malinois breed, which is considered among the most intelligent dog breeds. Belgian Malinois dogs typically weigh between 64 and 75 pounds, stand 24 to 26 inches tall, and have an average lifespan of 12 to 14 years.
While Malinois dogs are kept as household pets, with proper training they can also be used effectively for intelligence and military operations.
The names and identities of dogs serving in the U.S. military are kept classified. Until Conan was brought to the White House, no one knew his name or the details of his service. He not only took part in the mission to locate Baghdadi but also has several other important military operations to his credit, which remain classified.
The world learned about Conan through a tweet by President Trump, in which he released a photograph of the dog who had been living out of the public eye. The image emerged after the raid on Baghdadi’s house in Syria and his death.
In his first tweet, President Trump did not disclose the name of the dog involved in the mission against Baghdadi. Later, however, he declassified and revealed the dog’s name.
Conan was specially sent from the United States to Syria for the military operation against the ISIS leader. President Trump disclosed this in a tweet, saying that “Conan” was heading from the Middle East to Washington.
This was not the first time dogs have been used for critical military missions. Previously, in 2011, a trained dog of the same breed participated in the operation against al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
President Trump proved to be a tradition-breaking president. He not only broke the rule of keeping the names of military and intelligence dogs secret but also departed from the tradition of keeping them out of the public spotlight.
The tradition of keeping dogs at the White House is more than a century old. Many famous presidents had pet dogs, some of which became quite well known—for example, Obama’s Bo and Sunny, George W. Bush’s Millie, Kennedy’s Charlie, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Fala.
Roosevelt even maintained something of a small zoo at the White House. He had six dogs, along with a lion, a hyena, a badger, and a total of 22 pets. If we go further back, President William McKinley (1897–1901) did not have a pet dog at all; instead, he kept chickens, cats, and parrots.