Every service member goes through so much to protect our lives and liberties that sometimes we forget that they might need saving too.
Retired Major NC USAF Linda Stanley served over 20 years in the military – with six years in the Army and 14 years in the Air Force as a nurse. Linda deployed in 2006 with the 32nd Medical Group to Balad, Iraq, where she was a trauma nurse and provided medical care to many severely injured service members. Linda saw the worst conditions imaginable and it was the “human side” of war that affected her most.
“Eventually though, I had a situation happen when we lost a patient and I thought to myself, I feel nothing,” Linda said, “because that’s what happens with [post-traumatic stress disorder] PTSD you start feeling nothing.”
At work, she had a soldier’s grit but over time she developed PTSD. Her anxieties made it difficult for her to go out in the world and to sleep. When therapy wasn’t enough, Linda was introduced to Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs (TLCAD), a non-profit that pairs service members with service dogs.
Willow is a yellow Labrador who had spent her entire life training to help people like Linda. In Willow, Linda found her hero. Finally, Linda was able to live again, smile again and find happiness again.
Today, Linda has turned her experiences with PTSD into a mission to help other fellow service members; she is working as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Watch her touching story in this documentary made by the PAWsitive Channel and TLCAD who teamed up to share this story of a true hero this Veterans Day.
22 veterans commit suicide every day in the United States. A PTSD service dog can save a vet’s life. This Veterans Day, you can help too by donating to any one of the numerous service dog organizations that provide dogs to veterans suffering from PTSD.
Toledo, United States.