Where did you serve and what did you do?

LTC (USAR-Retired) Kate Van Auken has held a variety of military leadership positions throughout her twenty-eight year Army Reserve career including military police platoon leader, detachment commander, and numerous staff assignments at battalion, brigade and group level conducting civil-military operations and multi-national force level operations. Her last assignments were mostly on active duty in support of the Global War on Terrorism. She was activated for 13 months on September 11th, 2001 with her Military Police Battalion securing the alternate Pentagon and key facilities in and around the Military District of Washington, during reconstruction of the Pentagon. She served on an extended 2 ½ year deployment in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 working to gather evidence on mass graves and war crimes for the Iraqi Special Tribunal and recovery of US and Kuwaiti POW and Missing. LTC Van Auken served in the Army Staff, Army Operation Center (2005-2006) as Military Police Operations Officer for the Provost Marshal General’s Office. She served a year-long tour in Afghanistan (2008-2009) working for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams, NATO’s embedded training teams with the Afghan National Army and Police. She completed a two year tour (2010-2012) with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office in the Pentagon, deploying to recover current war missing service members from the 1991 Gulf War-Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Vietnam War. Her final assignment on active duty was Deputy Chief for Homemade Explosives Task Force, in the Joint Improvised Explosives Detection (IED) Defeat Organization at the Pentagon, Washington DC, where she learned about the US Marine Corps program to adopt retiring IED Detection Dogs and was fortunate to adopt Sergeant Rey, a black Labrador Retriever.

Tell us how your dog is helping you continue Still Serving in your community.

Having Sergeant Rey helped, Kate realize that Man’s Best Friend could be a Veteran’s Best Medicine. Rey helped dramatically with Kate’s symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) and became her true battle buddy. In searching for a way to train Rey to be a certified service dog, she found a shortage of training programs and a shortage of service dogs. The wait times and costs for a service dog are very real for veterans and any delay could be costly for veterans struggling with depression, anxiety or suicidal ideations. Kate founded, Company 2 Heroes – Veteran Service Dog Training Program, to fill a critical gap in service dog availability to the many veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war in Massachusetts. It provides an opportunity for veterans to train their own dog to be their service dog with no long waiting periods, allowing the veteran to be involved in their own recovery. Company 2 Heroes is a unique COST FREE service dog training program specializing in weekly guided training. Training consists of instruction in obedience, assistance tasks and public access to a combination of standards from the American Kennel Club (AKC), American Disabilities Act (ADA), Animal Behavioral College (ABC) and Assistance Dog International (ADI). We have a mix of sizes and breeds, representing breeder donations, shelter rescues, personally owned pets and of course retired Military K9s. Company 2 Heroes is a 501 c3 Non-Profit Charitable Organization and registered Massachusetts Veteran Charity Organization (VCO).

Why do you do it?

We have been fortunate to partner this year with the Marblehead VFW Post# 2005, under the new leadership of Ron Knight, Commander. They are helping us with two major fundraisers to bring awareness to Suicide Prevention and Service Dog’s. In honor of September being Suicide Prevention and Service Dog Awareness Month, September 14th, they are hosting a Spirit of ’76 Patriot 5K in the morning and that evening hosting a Live Band Rocking Evening with the Guy Ford Band to help raise money for K9 gear and equipment for Company 2 Heroes. This is the special kind of events that have inspire a community to have an impact on our veterans!