Page 738 - Total War on PTSD

CHAPTER 2 - CANADA’S SERVICE DOG
Sam and Myah the German Shepherd's – Austin: Myah, my three-year-old German Shepherd who I personally trained to be my PTSD Service Dog, has proven herself to be a truly inseparable part of my life. She is a constant companion for myself and my wife no matter where our daily life takes us. We have been married for 47 years, and I spent some of that time in service of our country in the Air Force.
I was like really early Vietnam. It was like 1965. We were like the first ones there. PTSD was not a recognized problem at that time. I had the perfect company with me in Sam. Basically, I had a Service Dog. I had an animal who was great at what he did, finding bad guys in the jungle. And if I was down, he knew it. He would just pick on it instantly. It was pretty similar to the way Myah reacts now. He wasn't kind to everybody else, but he was great to me because he knew when things were bothering me.
When the 173rd (Brigade) got ambushed and they lost quite a few soldiers, and I remember getting reporting on 56 soldiers being killed that week, but I remember counting 156 soldiers just in one day. That was one of those things that really, really disturbed me. I was there taking them off the helicopters because they were all in bags. And some of those bags were still warm. I would leave that day and go back to Sam in his kennel, and he knew that I was really upset. His
738 of 1042