There are very few animals in this world that can say they’ve helped shape the course of history, but the corp of canines that are part of the now legendary Seal Team 6 can make, or at least bark, that claim. One of these brave animals, either a German Sheppard or a Belgian Malinois, trained by the military in a variety of skills (including bomb sniffing, gun sniffing, and attack maneuvers) accompanied and assisted the elite unit that finally took down Osama Bin Laden (ranked the top story of 2011 by the Associated Press).

The dog was attached to a team member and lowered from a chinook helicopter into Bin Laden’s compound, where it sniffed out any potential explosive threats, and even helped to locate the hidden room where Bin Laden was finally found. The exact dog that carried out the mission has not been revealed, but the group of animals as a whole was recently named Time magazine’s “Animal of the Year”, and they should all be considered heroes.