When Brothers Help One Another

"Michael is a brother. He needs me just as much as I need him."
"That's not being fair to the dog [should the man dependent on its aid as a service dog commit suicide], not being fair to that partner who's stood beside me forever."
"When you can escape yourself for a minute, and stop being selfish and think about the things you have, in my world, it's that dog."
Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bessler, Cody, Wyoming

Bonnie Jo Mount/ Washington Post   Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bessler and his brown Belgian Malinois Mike take a walk in Cody, Wyoming. Both suffer from PTSD since serving in Iraq, but now Mike is a service dog and they are helping each other heal.

They were partners in conflict, Matthew Bessler and 'Mike', the 52-pound brown Belgian Malinois who was trained by the military. They worked well together in Iraq, and the results were such that Sgt. Bessler was awarded two Bronze Stars. Their second tour, part of an elite Special Operations group in the most dangerous phase of the war in Iraq saw them spending every day and each night together, for an eight-month period.

Mike is no longer a combat dog. He is retired. And the military personnel who look after military dogs have concluded that combat canines too, can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. As it happened, Sgt. 1st Class Bessler also retired with the realization that his symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder meant he would never return to combat. Matthew Bessler had applied to adopt Mike, and bring him home.

Michelle Siu for National Post   Many soldiers who worked with canine units during recent wars bring the dogs home afterwards, where they become service animals.

In his twenty-year career with the military in Special Operations, his expertise in engineering and intelligence-gathering had him dispatched to a variety of violent conflicts that the United States military was involved in; Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Iraq. The decorated Army Ranger understood that the trust and affection between himself and the combat dog was special and that connection could help them both recover from the extreme stress that exposure to a conflict environment left them with.

Matthew Bessler retired to his farm in Fountain, Colorado. Mike was billeted at the army's military kennels about 20 kilometres north of the farm, at Fort Carson. The required paperwork had been completed for adoption, and Matthew Bessler would rise at dawn daily and drive to Fort Carson to be with the dog who was refusing to eat unless his combat buddy was beside him.

"He won't work with anyone else. He's waiting for you to come back. Come pick up your dog", one of the Fort Carson dog trainers informed Bessler three weeks after they had both arrived back from Iraq to the U.S., and the adoption was finalized. That should have settled Mike down, but it didn't. He began chewing on rocks, crushing his teeth and his gums and part of his lip in nervous reaction to his condition.

Where before Mike was exposed to action on the war front, now it became a veterinary emergency installation where a veterinarian performed a number of surgeries to reconstruct Mike's nose and mouth. He was put on Prozac, becoming calmer, trusting again. But he needed something to focus on to distract him from his PTSD. The answer came as in his turn Matthew Bessler became increasingly traumatized as his own PTSD settled in.

The thought occurred that Mike could become a service dog; his service dog, to help him overcome the pathology that afflicted him. When the human of the duo becomes overstimulated and begins to panic Mike steps into the situation, walks into a quiet corner with his man, and waits out the stress; the close physical presence reducing anxiety as the hormone oxytocin is stimulated for both, aiding their mutual recovery.

The moodiness and the psychical pain can become overwhelming. And Matthew Bessler may begin to fantasize that suicide would release him from the demons that overtake his life periodically. Mike senses these crises and responds by climbing on Bessler, to ground him, so he is unable to do harm to himself, refusing to leave until the crisis has passed.

Bonnie Jo Mount/ Washington Post    Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bessler and his brown Belgian Malinois Mike (at top with black Labrador Ziva in Powell, Wyoming) were part of a canine tactical team with the 10th Special Forces Group. Their tours in Iraq led to post-traumatic stress, but soldier and dog have been helped by their deep connection.