Service dog brings hope, purpose

His journey to that point had been a long one. It all started on his last tour in Afghanistan.

The incident

After four years in the military, Smith was deployed to Helmand Province from 2010 – 2011 for his third overseas tour of duty.

Smith’s team was racing toward reports of a firefight in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous areas. After the team turned down an alley, a choke point, they spotted suspicious activity and the unit pursued on foot. 

No one noticed the nearby improvised explosive device (IED). In fact, one of the Soldier stepped right over it.

Then, Smith felt searing heat from an explosion while standing in the open door of his truck on the radio. A wall came down, slicing the vehicle in half. Smith lost consciousness.

When he came to, Smith grabbed the radio and began calling for a medical evacuation. 

“It was chaos,” said Smith, seriously. “I got on the radio and started calling for (medical attention) because I didn’t know if my guys were dead or not. Turns out we were all just really banged up from the explosion.”

Smith recovered on light duty for eight days. He said he was diagnosed with a concussion which was not his first while on deployment.

“That was kind of the daily routine, getting blown up. You knew it was going to happen you just didn’t know when,” he said, matter-of-factly. 

But this time was different. 

“That one in particular, I didn’t feel right after. The ears were ringing really bad, dizziness, nausea, throwing up, threw up blood. I felt really sick,” he said. “After that I never felt the same with my head and my neck.”

Aftermath

Smith left the military after that tour and began working but was continuously let go due to being a “liability for safety reasons.” He said he would lose his balance, miss work due to severe cluster headaches and multiple medical visits. He would even occasionally lose consciousness. 

“I’ve collapsed on the job I don’t know how many times when I was working several years ago,” he said. “That made me reevaluate, and I reopened my claim to see if there was anything else going on.”

Smith is diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. When he reopened his claim they found a service-connected tumor in his brain. 

Smith is not alone as a servicemember with TBI. From September 2001 through September 2021, almost 450,000 Veterans entered the VA TBI Veterans Health Registry, representing 13% of all Veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Operation New Dawn and 29% of all OEF/OIF/OND Veterans who have received services from the Veterans Health Administration.

“My symptoms (from the TBI) vary from day-to-day. I get a lot of blurriness with my vision. I get a lot of dizziness, vertigo. I have a hard time remembering where I put things. I get headaches a lot,” he explained. “I get nausea a lot. Sometimes it impacts my balance and I have trouble walking. Some days you wouldn’t even know I have a TBI. I have good days where I feel great and I can walk and then there’s days I can’t get out of bed.”

In addition to his TBI and PTSD symptoms, the tumor causes anxiety and manic-depressive episodes due to it effecting his hormones, Smith said.

After being diagnosed with the tumor, Smith began to look into getting a service dog.

“Because I wasn’t leaving my house,” he explained. “At one point, I didn’t leave my house for four years.” 

Tragedy strikes

Smith spent four years living in self-isolation in Montana before returning to Chicago in 2022. He mentioned service dogs to his counselor at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, and she connected Smith to Very Important Pooches (VIP) Service Dog Foundation, a non-profit charity organization that trains and places service, skilled companion, and emotional support dogs. The organization has a Veteran scholarship program to place dogs free of charge.

Originally, Smith was paired with a dog that didn’t work out. The dog was not suitable for becoming a service animal and was transitioned to a therapy dog.

However, during that time, he did meet Hawk and his original owner. 

“I considered him a great friend of mine,” said Smith. “He took me under his wing when I first joined the organization, and he was the nicest guy. I saw him honestly being a dog trainer or something down the road. He had a lot of potential to do whatever he wanted. He was a young, bright, intelligent man.”

Hawk’s first owner committed suicide.

“He was just going through a very rough time and, unfortunately, he never expressed his feelings in class,” said Smith. “It was very surprising. You would never have known that he was fighting PTSD or TBI or depression. And that's the scary part.”

Veterans with a history of TBI are over twice as likely to die by suicide compared to those without such a diagnosis, according to a 2019 VA study. 

“I was talking to him, texting him back and forth, and we just got off the phone talking about stuff. That was the night he ended his life,” Smith reflected. “I was just like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ when I got the news the next day. My stomach sank. I just felt terrible wondering what I could have done because I really didn't know.”

Finding purpose

Smith was paired with Hawk in April.

“Him and I established quite the bond when I first got him because he was going through trauma from his last owner with what happened to him, and I’m going through trauma on the daily, whether it's my physical ailments, mental ailments, or just being impaired,” Smith said.

Before Hawk, Smith said his only motivation was his daughter, who will turn three in February.

“My daughter is my number one purpose, but I felt like I wasn’t giving her enough,” he said. “Now that I have a service dog, it motivates me to want to get up. It helps my mental health. I didn’t think owning a service dog would help with that because it’s so cliché.”

Not only was Hawk a catalyst for Smith in his own life, but it also gave him a calling to do right by Hawk’s first owner.

“Once I got his dog, it was like, I need to do right, and I need to spread messages to other Veterans that there's hope,” he said. “That there's ways out of your pain rather than to end your own life. He was number eleven or twelve, I think, from the closest people I've met in my life and served with. I sit there every day, and I wonder why he did what he did. And I'm never going to get that answer. So, I figured I can just do good in life for others and do good for myself and try to help out any way I can.”

For Smith, his goal is to advocate for mental health for Veterans and those with medical ailments. 

“I’m still figuring out what track I’m going to go down, but I just want to do good, to be a good person.”

Smith unexpectedly had the opportunity to speak about his experiences on the Drew Barrymore show. 

“It was a wonderful experience,” he recalled. “I never would have been able to do this if I never made the phone call to (Very Important Pooches). Taking that step opened up my world to something I never thought I could do.”

Smith was on the show for Veterans Day after appearing on a local news feature about the VIP Foundation and the impact of these service dogs to Veterans.

It was a surreal experience for Smith.

“I grew up watching this woman in movies and now I get to sit down and have a conversation with her!” he said. “She fell in love with (Hawk) and I got pictures of her petting him. She was just an absolutely amazing individual.”

That experience strengthened his desire to help others and continue on this path, according to Smith.

“I feel like my future is bright. It's been fifteen years since I felt whole and complete,” he said. “I was on the Drew Barrymore show, and I've had other people approach me and want to do interviews. That's when I started thinking maybe there's something here that I can help others with and I would be glad to do that for anybody.”