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Brookville Navy veteran receives service/companion dog at AMVETS ceremony
Our thanks to the Brookville Star for joining us in covering this gala event:
By MARILYN McCONAHAY; Star Staff Writer
BROOKVILLE - It was a happy, emotional moment when Brookville resident Veteran Navy CMC E7 Keith Carr and his service/mobility dog Beamer officially became new best friends at the Brookville AMVETS Post 1789 last week.
On Aug. 6, Carr, 40, was presented with Beamer by Sandra L. Bohle of Celina, founder and president of Angels for Veterans Organization through its Angel Paws Service/Companion Dogs program.
Carr's wife Jessica, a former equipment operator he met in the service, was with him as they described how close the new man-and-dog team have become during the past recent weeks while they trained together for their new relationship.
"They're together all the time," she said. "Beamer knows when it is time to play and when it is time to 'be at work' and be serious."
Beamer was trained by Fran Morford, founder/trainer of Wagmor Service Dogs in Tipp City.
On hand for the presentation were well-wishers from AMVETS, including Post Commander John Childers; Mike Pitman, First Vice Commander of Membership of AMVETS Department of Ohio; Executive Director of Ohio AMVETS Regis Grim; Phil Dane of Eaton Obedience and many other AMVETS members and friends.
Carr entered the Navy in December of 1993 and was discharged in October 2014. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (two deployments each) and served in Guam, Spain, Africa and Bosnia during his service career.
His awards are many, including two Joint Service Commendation medals, Navy Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medals, two Joint Service Achievement awards, two Navy Achievement awards, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Operation Iraqi Freedom Medal, Operation Enduring Freedom Medal, United Nations Medal and Combat Action Ribbon.
Beamer's trainer, Morford, put the young puppy she will train next through a few basic training demonstrations and then contrasted the end result of training by showing what Beamer can do with his advanced training to help out Carr.
Bohle explained she founded her Angels for Veterans organization "to demonstrate deep gratitude and concern for all active duty and honorably discharged veterans of all branches of the United States military."
"Our Angel PAWS Dog program provides service and companion dogs free of charge to veterans with disabilities to enhance their quality of life," she explained.
It's expensive to train one of the service dogs and Angels for Veterans also provides food and other services to veterans, so donations help keep the organization going.
Anyone who would like to donate to the organization's causes can mail them to Angels for Veterans, P. O. Box 611, Celina, Ohio 45822.
