Military Officer - July 2007 - (Page 64)

O ON DEC. 28 , 2002, Army 1st Sgt. Colin Rich was on patrol near Shkin, Afghanistan, with the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment when his unit came under attack. During the ensuing ﬁreﬁght Rich was struck in the head by an enemy bullet that put a silver-dollar-sized hole in the back of his brain and left him with a seizure disorder and severe visual impairment. “I thought, ‘I don’t need a guide dog. Guide dogs are for blind people, and I’m not blind,’ ” Rich recalls. “But they said, ‘Just come down and check us out.’ ” Rich visited the school and, impressed with what the dogs could do, agreed his life would be easier with a guide dog. He was paired with a golden retriever/black Lab mix named Indi. It was a perfect match. “I can’t emphasize enough how much I love this dog,” says Rich, who retired from the Army as a sergeant major in February and now lives in Raeford, N.C. “In addition to helping me get around and making people aware of my vision impairment, he is very good for my morale. I haven’t had a dog since I was a kid, and I can’t imagine not having him now.” Rich is one of a growing number of wounded Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans realizing the tremendous value of service dogs. Trained guide dogs have been in use since the 1930s and became the eyes for thousands of blind and visionimpaired World War II veterans. But today’s service dogs are capable of much more, say trainers and owners, including helping amputees walk and assisting those with other forms of physical and psychological wounds. “[Veterans are] a totally different disabled population than we’re used to working with,” observes Sheila O’Brien, executive director of NEADS/Dogs For Deaf And Disabled Americans, a service dog organization based in Princeton, Mass., that in 2004 started a special program called Canines for Combat Veterans, which provides service dogs to wounded veterans free of charge. “The people [whom] we previously placed dogs with tended to be older and frailer. Now we’re seeing men and women in their 20s who are Rich was shipped back to the States and patched up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. He seemed to adjust well to life with his disabilities; he used a guide stick to get around and never really considered getting a guide dog. Then a friend suggested he look into Paws for Patriots, a program offered by Southeastern Guide Dogs Inc. that provides guide and service dogs to wounded veterans at no charge. VA INVOLVEMENT The VA has actively assisted vision-impaired veterans with obtaining guide dogs for decades, says Neal Eckrich, program manager with the VA’s Prosthetics and Clinical Logistics Office in Washington, D.C. However, the agency still is investigating the use of service dogs. “We’ve commissioned three research studies on the use of service dogs, and we’re putting together recommendations to present to [VA Secretary] R. James Nicholson,” Eckrich explains. “A decision should be made soon, because there is a sense of urgency. People want to know more about this topic.” The VA has a close association with organizations nationwide that train guide dogs and works as a liaison for vision-impaired veterans, Eckrich says. “Veterans should contact their local visual impairment services team coordinator for information and assistance,” he says. “Every VA medical center has one. The veterans’ service organizations and the Blinded Veterans Association are also immensely helpful.” Once a veteran receives a guide dog, the VA will pay for its equipment, including a harness and leash, as well as associated repairs. The agency also pays for veterinary care and other services. “If a dog develops a problem that requires prescription food, for example, we’ll pay for that, too,” Eckrich says. “We’ll take care of everything needed to maintain a guide dog’s daily living.” 64 MILITARY OFFICER J U LY 2 0 0 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - July 2007

Military Officer - July 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: In Focus After the Kim Dynasty Animal House Paying Tribute MOAA Member Services Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - July 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.