Tipsheet

RIP to the Most Decorated K-9 in White House History

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  February 21, 2025 12:30 PM

Hurricane, a Secret Service dog who rose to fame protecting the Obama White House, died last week in Alexandria, Virginia. 

The Belgian Malinois wrestled a 23-year-old intruder on Oct. 22, 2014, who came within 100 yards of the former president and former first lady. The man was first approached by another Secret Service K-9, Jordan, but he successfully fought the dog off. That’s when the man had a run-in with Hurricane, who came from the east side of the lawn to wrestle him to the ground allowing Secret Service agents to take him into custody. 

Sadly, the incident left Hurricane seriously injured.

“He beat Hurricane really bad,” Mr. Mirarchi, who served in the Secret Service’s Special Operations Division from 2006 to 2017, recalled Tuesday. “But Hurricane did not give up.”

Hurricane was left with swollen legs and damaged hips. Jordan took a foot to the snout. (Jordan died in 2024.)

After the fight, Hurricane, a 69-pounder who could race at 25 miles per hour, would never jump the same, Mr. Mirarchi said.

But he and Jordan had helped the Secret Service avoid a second severe embarrassment in two months.

In September 2014, a different intruder had scaled the White House fence and managed to make it into the East Room of the White House, a breach that led the Secret Service director to resign.

Dogs were not used during the September break-in. After that episode, the agency increased the number of watch dogs at the White House. (The New York Times)

In 2015, one year before his retirement, Hurricane received the Secretary’s Award for Valor from the Department of Homeland Security, and went on to earn a Secret Service Distinguished Service Medal in 2022. 

One quality about Hurricane his handler Marshall Mirarchi said was so unique was his ability to also be a loving and friendly canine when the conditions were right.

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“What made Hurricane so special was that he could be so ferocious and brave, yet be so loving and kind at the same time,” Mirarchi told the Times. “He could be biting and doing apprehension all day long, and when he comes home, he was this loving, caring, kind soul.”

This characteristic helped him succeed as a mascot for a charity Mirarchi created, Hurricane’s Heroes, that helps offer veterinary services for retired military and law enforcement working dogs. 

But before he crossed the Rainbow Bridge, Hurricane got one last chance to visit his old stomping grounds. 

On the day he died, Hurricane took one final trip to the White House and took a photograph with his old Secret Service teammates. Then the group went back to Hurricane’s home in the Washington suburbs.

“His whole team came to say goodbye,” Mr. Mirarchi said. “We put him down together.” (The New York Times)