Page 879 - Total War on PTSD

take me away from my son, and I don't want that. My son was born in 1998. I didn't join until 2007 when they did the troops surge. I was a year too young to serve when Desert Storm was happening...I was still a Junior in High School at that point in time. By the time I was old enough to join they were already cutting back on the military again. I would not want my son to join the military as an enlisted member if he did choose to join. I wouldn't want him to live that life...it's a hard life. If he felt like he had to serve I would want him to go in as an officer.
Reece did save my life twice. He blocked the chair so I couldn't kick it out from under me when I was trying to hang myself. And then there was the other time when he alert barked when I took all the rat poison. Those weren't things he was trained for...that was just because he loved me so much. It was like he was saying, "You ain't leaving me here!" I was trying to hang myself, and I had just had my left ankle redone, and I was trying to kick the chair out from under me but I couldn't kick out with my left foot because of the ankle being redone. So, Reece kept putting himself on my right side and then he'd switch to the back when I tried to kick it out from the back. He just kept switching so I couldn't kick the chair out from under me. I ended up giving up and calling the Crisis Hotline. The second time I went out to one of the barns on my parent's property and took a bunch of rat poison. This is when my parents were my caregivers. I ended up collapsing and passing out...I don't remember what happened at that point, but apparently Reece alert barked and got dad to come out to the barn, and they rushed me to the hospital and pumped my stomach...thereby saving my life.
My therapy through the VA has been extremely helpful because the first year I basically spent not leaving my apartment whatsoever after my wife passed away. With Reece I started getting out more. And now, I am doing everything, every day. It's been seven years of therapy so far. I
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