Page 804 - Total War on PTSD

hear you but I'm not going to do anything about it. I knew of other Flight Medics in my unit who were also having problems, but they saw what happened to us and didn't say a word because they didn't want to get kicked out of the military too.
My wonderful wife Janet is my VA sponsored Caregiver. She has been helping me out in this capacity since 2011. Janet's 'puppy' is named Zippy, he is a Boxer and is basically our family pet. He earned his name because of his being a quick little guy. We did have another Boxer whose name was Snigglebutt (Janet named him) and he was named that because of whenever he was petted his little nub tail would go wild every time. Janet trained him to be a Therapy Dog and go into homes and hospitals, like the Ronald McDonald House so that the kids could pet him and so he could provide some comfort and happiness for those patients. He passed away a few years ago from cancer. After he passed, I told Janet that, when she was ready, and I didn't care where we had to go to do it, but we would go and get her another puppy if that's what she wanted. Well, Zippy was in Missouri and we live in Montana, so we got in the truck and I drove all the way to Joplin, Missouri and brought him home. He isn't trained to be a therapy dog...he is our house dog.
The lady who gave us JP, she gave us JP for free and taught me to train him. She gave him to me and told me that I already paid the price through my service. I think that there's a much better connection when the Veteran is able to train their dog themselves, or when the trainer can train the Veteran and the dog at the same time. So, Janet and I, we take that same premise, and we help our Veterans coming back with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries. We do the same thing. We teach them how to train their dogs for their own specific needs and we do it at no charge. We have kind of expanded it a little more to also include the same training/services for first responders.
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