It's the story of a service dog saving a veteran. Axel's Story is a children's book about the service dog of Spotsylvania-based Leashes of Valor founder Jason Haag. Axel passed away in 2023. But service dog non-profit Leashes of Valor has named its... Read More
By Chris Bowers
Editor's note: This blog was updated on Oct. 16, 2024.
The call came from our friend, Margarida, a Spotsylvania Sheriff’s deputy and former Marine. Our county’s oldest living veteran, 104-year-old Fred Moufang, had begun... Read More
It’s hard for me to put into words what it means to see Axel’s story in print (ironic as that may be).
I’ve always thought the story of the service dog who saved my life would make an inspiring book. A German shepherd rescued from an... Read More
By Karen Meadows
My eyes landed on the yellow lab lounging next to the checkout counter at the local feed store I regularly visited.
Weeks before, on a brilliant September morning, I’d been working on our family farm when someone flipped on the... Read More
By Mike Betts
Memorial Day used to be just another holiday. Then I served in the U.S. Marine Corps. The change wasn’t overnight. But as another Memorial Day approaches, I find myself seeking solitude and personal challenges—striving to do... Read More
The stars seem to shine brighter in the desert. Even in war. Perhaps especially in war. I still remember the way they flung across the vast sky as we rolled across the line of departure into Iraq in the early morning hours of March 20,... Read More
Andrew and I called ourselves “nub buddies.” We met at Walter Reed around the time we both received our prosthetics. After more than a year of limb salvage, endless doctor appointments, and a mountain of pills, the doctors decided to amputate,... Read More
By Jason Haag
Turn on the TV.
It was barely 6 a.m. on the West Coast when the phone shattered the early morning quiet—Dad calling from back home in Virginia.
I’d just come off a 48-hour shift at Camp Pendleton, my first duty station as... Read More
Hidden wounds take the longest to heal. Of course, we know this. It’s why we founded Leashes of Valor nearly six years ago. But knowing a thing—being certain of it—cannot prepare you for losing a friend to the unseen wounds of war we talk so... Read More
Maggie didn’t expect to be a front-line worker during a pandemic.
And yet, maybe it was destiny. She was born Margaret “Hotlips” Houlihan after all, and very much like her namesake from M*A*S*H, the 3-year-old white Labrador retriever... Read More
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