My name is Sgt. Mark Heimkes, U.S. Army Retired. My last tour of duty was in Iraq during 2009. Upon arriving home, I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For the first couple years upon returning home I was mainly a recluse. I was unwilling to venture out unless I went with my wife,
Sometimes a pooch smooch can make a friend’s deployment a little more bearable. Victory (trained by Paw PADS) gets a head start on her life as a service dog by sending the 147th FMD (Minnesota National Guard) off to Afghanistan with lots of pride and love in Minnesota.
Hundreds of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have experienced service related injuries such as physical disabilities, traumatic brain injury, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Veterans Administration documents report that over 500,000 American soldiers were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by the end of 2009. As many as one in five American soldiers are coming home from war zones
