Tag: veterans issues

Companions on Four Legs

August 4, 2023 ruralroutes1 Podcast Episodes 0:31:30 0 Comments

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Lani Rethaber, executive director of Patriot K9s of Wisconsin, is a Marine Corps and Wisconsin Army National Guard Veteran. Lani has a passion for helping Veterans and in 2019 started as a volunteer at Patriot K9s. Patriot K9s, a Central Wisconsin-based nonprofit, raises and trains psychiatric service dogs for disabled veterans. He has since become the program development manager and now the executive director. The organization employs five full-time staff and has a whole host of volunteers.  Patriot K9s also has a prison program helping inmates gain a sense of charity by helping Patriot K9s raise future service dog candidates.

From Clearing Combat Zone Roads to Clearing the Mind

July 28, 2023 ruralroutes1 Podcast Episodes 0:31:01 0 Comments

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West-central Wisconsin veteran Amanda McCune Cassidy’s U.S. Army service included a deployment to Afghanistan 2009-2010 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. During her deployment, she was one of a few females to do route clearance — working with explosive ordinance disposal technicians from different service branches to clear roads of improvised explosive devices; she also was assigned to train Afghan Army personnel in IED clearing procedures. Her journey back into civilian life has included working on PTS issues, part of which has been controlling alcohol use. Amanda discusses her military-to-civilian transition in the debut of host Pam Graham — herself a U.S. Navy veteran who happens to be Amanda’s aunt.

Telling the Military Sexual Trauma Story

July 14, 2023 ruralroutes1 Podcast Episodes 0:28:34 1 Comment

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Sarah Blum has experienced first-hand the traumas of war, having served as a surgical nurse in the Vietnam War. She also has experienced another form of trauma faced by many veterans: military sexual trauma. Sarah wrote about MST in her book, Women Under Fire: Abuse in the Military, and continues to travel the nation advocating for MST survivors and for changes to stop MST.