Operation Freedom, a partnership between the Veterans Administration and Freedom Service Dogs, Inc., pairs specially trained service dogs with returning military personnel and disabled veterans to assist with the lifelong transition from active duty and combat to civilian life. 

If you ask military veterans like Cameron Briggs and Artie Guerrero where they gather much of their daily inspiration and motivation after returning from battle with life changing disabilities, you might be surprised to hear each man give credit to his service dog.

Army Specialist Briggs and Vietnam veteran Guerrero are both recipients of service dogs specially trained to help returning military personnel and war veterans through their transition from active duty and combat to civilian life. The program was formed after Freedom Service Dogs, Inc., a Denver-based nonprofit, partnered with the Veterans Administration (VA) to add a new dimension to rehabilitation after injury.

This new Veterans Administration program adopts dogs from animal shelters, trains them through Freedom Service Dogs and matches them with wounded warriors at home from such battlegrounds as Iraq and Afghanistan. The program rescues and trains only unwanted and abandoned dogs and uses positive reinforcement and reward training methods. Freedom Service Dogs can train just over 40 dogs per year and says the number does not come close to meeting the demand. Training takes up to nine months and costs $23,000.

A Veteran’s New Battle Buddy
A fourth generation soldier who suffers from traumatic brain injury and PTSD in addition to physical injuries to his back and legs stemming from a series of roadside bomb attacks while he was serving in Iraq in 2006, Cameron Briggs has lived in the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson since returning from Iraq. His life changed again when he graduated with his dog, Harper, on June 27, 2009.

“Soldiering is all I’ve ever known,” Cameron Briggs told Freedom Service Dogs. “I can’t soldier anymore and, like a lot of guys like me, it’s scary leaving the Army.”
 
Briggs says his relationship with Harper provides both physical and emotional support. In addition to physical assistance with tasks such as keeping track of everyday things like his keys, cell phone and wallet that he misplaces frequently, Harper adds emotional support by balancing the PTSD anger and anxiety that often causes isolation.

“In combat, you can’t go anywhere alone,” Cameron Briggs explained. “You don’t go anywhere without your battle buddy. In civilian life, I want my service dog to be my battle buddy. I want the dog to go everywhere I go.”

Service Dogs Connect People, Beyond the Disability
Vietnam veteran and Colorado native, Artie Guerrero, is a well known adaptive sports athlete, activist and advocate. He serves on the Board of numerous national non-profits and jumps at the chance to help disabled veterans learn new life skills and hobbies. Guerrero has long been regarded as a mentor, counselor and voice for the disability community whose very physical presence commands the attention of state and national policy makers.

Recently, something changed his life. Guerrero now makes the trip to places such as the Colorado State Capital and Washington, D.C., as well as to VA hospitals and vet centers, with his service dog, Sierra. Sierra retrieves objects that fall to the ground, opens handicap doors, finds his phone and performs other routine tasks that help him serve the veterans’ community.

Guerrero says that Sierra does so much more for him and the veterans he visits. The dog helps break the ice and allows a disabled veteran to overcome the stress of being in a crowd of people. “When you go out with your service dog, you are a person with a cool dog. Not a person with a disability,” Artie Guerrero explained to Freedom Service Dogs. “A service dog lets veterans be like everyone else.”

Learn more about Operation Freedom and the partnership between Freedom Service Dogs and the Veterans Administration.

Photo Credits - Freedom Service Dogs, Inc.

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