Meet
"Mint," a five-year-old black Lab who
is one of the newest (and most well liked) members
of the Fort Worth, Texas office of the North Texas
Joint Terrorism Task Force (NTJTTF). He's a "different
breed" of public servant, but just as serious
as his human mates about protecting the U.S. from
terrorist attacks.
Not
a new concept. We've put the unique skills
of dogs to work for years to locate bombs, drugs,
money, and people. And it's not the first time that
dogs have been called to action in the war on terror.
Just days after the attacks of 9/11/01, 28 K-9 teams
helped recover remains at the Pentagon. But, we
believe Mint is one of only a few pups working directly
for a JTTF.
What
was our recruiting process? No, not a job
fair. In November 2002, NTJTTF member Lt. David
Kuhnell of the Fort Worth fire department bomb squad
met Mint during a trip to Great Britain to find
an "explosive detection canine," and the
two immediately hit it off. On Mint's resume: he
worked the streets of Northern Ireland and helped
clear roads of bombs for Queen Elizabeth.
What's
the job? Mint can sniff out the smallest
traces of explosives, and do it exponentially faster
than his human counterparts and tirelessly, with
no complaints, few breaks, and no overtime. Already,
Mint has helped with security sweeps for the likes
of First Lady Laura Bush and Vice President Cheney,
spent a grueling seven straight days in the swamps
and piney woods of east Texas searching for "explosives
charges" from the fallen Columbia space shuttle,
and sniffed for bombs all night long after a domestic
terrorist threatened to detonate a large truck bomb
in Fort Worth.
That's why Mint is in such high demand: not just
by the NTJTTF offices in Fort Worth and Dallas,
but also by many law enforcement agencies in the
area.
What
about the two-legged members of the NTJTTF in Ft.
Worth? They are nearly two-dozen strong,
and they hail from the full gamut of agencies: local,
state, and federal. They include special agents,
local police officers, an Arabic linguist, SWAT
experts, bomb techs, Evidence Response Team members,
intelligence analysts, and more. The team does it
all when it comes to fighting terrorism: running
down leads, making arrests, responding to threats
and incidents 24/7, hosting training symposiums,
and sharing intelligence far and wide.
For
more on how K-9s help the FBI, see the
special section on dogs in our kid's
page. For an overview of efforts to prevent
attacks, see our Counterterrorism
web site and terrorist
cases.
