When James Blanford hooks a leash to his dog's collar, he's not just preparing for a walk. The 35-year-old former Army sergeant is fighting back against a diagnosis that ended his career and changed his life.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder makes you not want to be around people and to close yourself in your own little world," Blanford said from his Searcy home this week. "I can't do that with him. He makes me get up. I have to take him out and do things. He reminds me I have responsibilities."
“He makes me get up. I have to take him out and do things. He reminds me I have responsibilities.”
James Blanford of Searcy, a former Army sergeant, on his dog, Rocky
Blanford is one of thousands of U.S. military veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD after fighting overseas. After six years of active duty, most of it spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, working in a special-operations helicopter unit, the Searcy resident struggled to find a way to deal with the growing anxiety, depression and listlessness he was feeling.
That is, until he met Rocky, a 2-year-old black Labrador retriever rescued from an animal shelter and trained to be a service dog by the nonprofit K9s for Warriors. The Florida-based group rescues dogs from all over the country and pairs them with veterans diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries.
"I started the nonprofit in an effort to help my own son who suffered from severe post-traumatic stress as a result of two tours in Iraq as a bomb dog handler," said Shari Duval -- wife of pro golfer Bobby Duval-- who founded the organization. "Our goal is to reach and serve as many veterans suffering from PTSD or traumatic brain injury as possible."
The group offers all of its services to veterans for free. More than 100 veterans have completed the program since its start in 2011. It trains four or five more veterans each month to team up with dogs; that number will increase to 16 when it moves to a new facility.
There are several groups across the country that match veterans with dogs, but K9s for Warriors makes a point of rescuing shelter dogs from euthanasia. Most of the dogs are under 2 years old. They must be nonaggressive, get along with other animals and small children and be easy to take to public places.
The group trains the dogs to detect and to deal with specific symptoms and complications of PTSD.
Blanford's wife, Sara, was the first to notice something was wrong with her husband -- there were mood swings, signs of depression and little interest in leaving the house.
It didn't take long for a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doctor to see those and other symptoms and diagnose Blanford's PTSD on his first visit in the summer of 2010.
Blanford had joined the Army when he was still in high school in 1997. He served one year of deferred service before graduating from high school and deploying to South Korea in 1998, then to Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"In my mind, I'm not the same person," he said. "When you go to war, you experience the same things over and over, and over and over. When your life is threatened everyday, when that's the only thing you see and know, it's hard to switch that off ... that worry and concerns. There's something in our brains that wasn't meant to be that way for that long."
When Blanford returned from active duty in 2004, he served one year in the National Guard before finishing his term of enlistment. But he stayed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky and put his specialized skills to use, continuing to maintain and repair weapons systems on special-operations helicopters. The unit is famous for helping deploy SEAL Team 6 to Pakistan during the 2011 raid that left 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden dead.
Blanford's diagnosis threw a wrench in his career plans. Despite his past service, the contractor on the base he worked for as a civilian had to dismiss him because of internal regulations that ban anyone diagnosed with PTSD or a handful of other disorders from working on high-stress operations or handling dangerous equipment.
Soon after losing his job, the Blanfords lost their house.
"We lost everything. I couldn't find another job fast enough to pay our bills," he said. "I was offered another job in Detroit, but that wasn't where we wanted to take our kids."
The couple took their three young children to Arkansas in December 2010 to live with Sara's parents on their farm outside Stuttgart. Blanford continued to look for work, finding odd jobs at warehouses and in other manual labor. Because of chronic issues with his knees and migraines -- both a result of the work Blanford performed at the base -- the employment didn't last long, he said.
The family was trying to get back on its feet, and Blanford was trying to find a way to cope. The medication he was given was helping, but not enough, he said.
He and Sara looked at different treatment options on the Internet. And in 2011, Blanford found K9s for Warriors. He talked with Sara to make sure they could handle another dog -- she has a 12-year-old Pomeranian poodle mix -- and decided to apply.
A few months later, the nonprofit notified Blanford he had been accepted. A few months after that, the nonprofit took him to Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where it operates a specialized training facility.
K9s for Warriors paid for his flight, gave him a place to stay and took care of his meals, laundry and other needs. For three weeks, he bonded with Rocky, building trust.
Man and dog learned to lean on each other, literally.
Rocky was taught a special command called "brace" that helps Blanford when he has to stand up from a kneeling position. More importantly, though, Rocky learned commands to prevent people from entering Blanford's immediate personal space when he's anxious. Another command puts Rocky in Blanford's peripheral vision and prevents anyone from startling him from behind.
This buffer zone and the early-warning system Rocky creates help ease the pressure of daily situations.
For people with PTSD, small things can trigger big memories that can lead to anxiety, panic attacks or more severe symptoms and actions.
"Whenever he's been really down and he's had significant PTSD problems, I've gone and gotten Rocky and brought him in," said Sara. "It's been a really big comfort. Rocky lays down beside him or sometimes on top of him. I think it helps him a lot knowing Rocky is there to comfort him. I'm really grateful that they have this program. These volunteers take a lot of time to give to veterans in need."
Sara, who had foot surgery recently, joked that the dog has been at her heels for the past week.
"It's funny. Normally he's just stuck to James, but this week he's been following me around because of the surgery," she said. "It's sweet. He's really concerned about me."
The family stays back when Blanford is practicing commands with Rocky, but other than those times, the playful pooch is part of the family. Blanford said the staff at K9s for Warriors has also become like family.
"Anytime I need them for anything, I just call. They gave me their cellphone numbers, and they check in," he said. "It's just a relief to have those people who care instead of treating you like a number or a patient."
A section on 07/04/2014