Where did you serve and what did you do?
I spent 21 years in the Navy and retired as a Chief Electronics Technician.
Tell us how your dog is helping you continue #StillServing in your community.
When I met my Service Dog, Alaska, at Mission 22 Service Dogs in Linwood MI, I was going through a deep and dangerous depression. My doctor had put me on antidepressants because I felt like I wanted to die. I don’t think I would have harmed myself, but I had started secretly hoping that the universe would do the job for me. That a bus would hit me or I’d accidentally overdose or simply that I’d be allowed to exit the earth quietly and gracefully, to just erase myself. Alaska made me laugh when no one could make me laugh. The simple act of petting her eased the pressure in my chest, the impending panic attack. Alaska didn’t erase my depression. I wasn’t magically better from that day on. But she gave me moments of joy, a view of light at the end of the tunnel where I hadn’t seen any before. The most important thing Alaska did for me, though, is make me stop thinking about dying. Because even on the very darkest, hardest days, Alaska needed me as much as I needed her. I was responsible not only for my own life, but for the life of another that I loved desperately and who needed me just as much as I needed her. I did a thousand other things to pull myself out of depression, to make life better, to learn to love myself, to learn to manage my anxiety and depression. But Alaska is the one thing that could always get me out of bed and to work, even when I wanted nothing more than to sleep forever. Because of my dog, I am not only alive, but am living my life to the fullest. I’ve found ways to make my anxiety and depression smaller, more manageable, and hopefully someday gone altogether. Just like therapy, doctors, medications, exercise, massage, etc., Service Dogs are a tool to manage an invisible disability the affects many Veterans. Alaska has changed my life in ways much bigger than you could imagine.
Please include a plug for Michelle at Mission 22 Service Dogs in Linwood Michigan because without her us Veterans needing Service Dogs would not have them!!!
Why do you do it?
I felt lost after leaving the Navy and my Service Dog Alaska has made life actually fun again. During the Covid lockdown (AKA 2 weeks to flatten the curve) My dog Alaska and I hiked 450 miles on the Appalachian Trail. I now work at the Battle Creek Michigan VA Hospital doing Biomed electronics repair.