Military
Israeli Trainers Who Built Israel's Bomb Dog Program Stood Up SEAL K9 Program
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Danger Close | The Fourth Option Podcast: John Devine
"Mike Hirschstick was one of the trainers that helped stand that program up. He actually helped stand that program up. And funny enough, he was also one of the trainers that they ended up contracting to stand up the dog program as well. So they ended up pulling a lot of trainers that stood up the program in Israel to then start the program up years later in the early 2000s."
The SEAL K9 program was established in the early 2000s by contracting the same trainers, including Mike Hirschstick, who had built Israel's explosive detection dog program in the late 1990s in response to frequent suicide bombings. This direct operational knowledge transfer brought proven counter-IED tactics from the Israeli experience directly into U.S. Special Operations.
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