April 9, 2025
I Received the Gift of Life—Twice
By Jason Haag
Twenty-two years ago today, I lay wounded on a street in Iraq. I'd been in the country mere weeks, part of the 2nd Batallion, 5th Marines, "the tip of the spear" tasked with securing key terrain at the outset of the invasion.
I'd... Read More
March 1, 2025
War Doesn’t End Because We Can’t Return to the Before Times. But That Doesn’t Mean There Isn’t Hope.
“Only the dead have seen the end of war,” General Douglas MacArthur famously said in a speech at West Point nearly a decade and a half after the Allies defeated the Nazis.
Although the quote’s origins are still debated—maybe Plato said it... Read More
March 1, 2025
My Service Dog Gave Me the Freedom to Celebrate What We Fought For
The year I turned seven stands out as my most memorable childhood birthday. I was afflicted with chickenpox—a hard thing to forget. I remember running around outside my grandparents’ house on the Patuxent River in an oversized T-shirt with... Read More
March 1, 2025
I Wasn’t Looking for Another Service Dog. That’s When I Found One.
For years, my service dog Axel rarely left my side. Whether taking a quick trip to the gas station or boarding a plane bound for halfway across the country, Axel was there, a steady and steadfast presence who often recognized my symptoms of... Read More
March 1, 2025
For One Horrified Moment, We Stood Alone. Now We Don’t Have To.
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 a... Read More
March 1, 2025
Nothing Can Prepare You for Losing a Friend to the Unseen Wounds of War
By Christopher Bowers
Hidden wounds take the longest to heal. Of course, we know this. It’s why we founded Leashes of Valor more than six years ago. But knowing a thing — being certain of it — cannot prepare you for losing a friend to the... Read More
March 1, 2025
Memorial Day Used to Be Just Another Holiday. Then I Served in the Marine Corps.
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
March 1, 2025
You Never Know the Significance of a Moment Until It Passes
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
March 1, 2025
We Rolled On Through the Night, Buoyed By a Brush with Death
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
March 1, 2025
War Broke My Husband. LOV Made Us Whole Again.
By Elizabeth Haag
It was supposed to be a celebration dinner.
My 22-year-old husband was home from war after six excruciating months during which we’d had virtually no contact.
We headed to a restaurant with friends—fellow Marines and their... Read More
March 1, 2025
Top 10 Training Tips to Make Your Dog Smile
Our service dog candidates have been training hard here at Leashes of Valor this summer! They've attended golf tournaments, community meet-and-greets, and fundraisers. And when the weather got hot, our trainers took them indoors: They practiced... Read More
March 1, 2025
I Wanted to Work with Dogs That Help People. After 9/11, I Knew I Had To
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
March 1, 2025
New Children’s Book Shares Tale of Real-Life Hero Dog that Inspired Service Dog Nonprofit
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
March 1, 2025
On a Trip to Colorado with My New Service Dog, I Knew I’d Come Full Circle
By Jason Haag
The first trip I ever made with my service dog, Axel, was to Breckenridge, Colorado in winter. I’d accepted an invitation for a ski spectacular, one of many outdoor events put on by organizations around the country for wounded and... Read More
March 1, 2025
I Survived Iraq Twice. Then I was Nearly Killed at a Restaurant Close to Home
By Rod Moore
When I deployed to Iraq in 2007, I was prepared to give my life for my country. The same was true when I deployed again in 2009 as a Navy engineer chief responsible for the multi-billion dollar Iraqi reconstruction effort.
I never... Read More
February 13, 2025
I Embarrassed My Family and Let Them Down. I Knew I Needed Help.
By Chris Stanfield
Everything seemed to be closing in on me at the local parent-run soccer league that day in 2021. My young daughter was out on the field. I was the volunteer referee, taking on the role when no one else offered to step up.
But... Read More
January 27, 2025
Leashes of Valor: Axel’s Story
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
October 17, 2024
We Were Just Marines, Visiting a Fellow Marine
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
August 1, 2023
Hidden Wounds Take Longest to Heal: Remembering Brad Pierce
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
February 16, 2023
Dogs offer healing. During Nurse’s Week, Maggie is doing just that.
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
January 24, 2023
When seizures sidelined a service dog, she found an even higher purpose
Some dogs are born to heal. We knew soon after meeting Victory that she was one of them. At just a few months old, the doe-eyed Labrador already showed qualities we look for in a service dog. She was gentle and smart and perceptive, and these traits... Read More
October 12, 2022
It’s not OK to pet a wheelchair. And it’s not OK to pet a service dog.
Until Richard met his service dog, Carrie, he rarely ventured into a store alone.
He’d lived with symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder for years: Vivid nightmares. Anxiety. The inability to make simple decisions. Anger. “If I felt like... Read More
June 27, 2022
Want to enjoy the freedoms our military fought for? Help those who serve at home.
In the beginning, there were the first responders.
Before the U.S. bombing campaign against the Taliban, before American troops put boots on the ground in Afghanistan, they were there, racing toward mammoth buildings besieged by burning jet... Read More
March 9, 2022
When one leash saves two lives, adoption fees are a small price to pay
By Danique Masingill
Month after month, adopters in search of a four-legged family member passed by Tango’s kennel at the SPCA of Fredericksburg. Maybe it was the dog’s size. Or maybe it was because this handsome, hazel-eyed Vizsla resembled... Read More
June 20, 2021
A new service dog at the office? It’s everybody’s job to make it work.
Steve waited until he got home to look inside an envelope a coworker handed him on her last day before retirement. She’d cried when she said goodbye to Steve and his service dog, Mohawk, he recalled as he opened it. Inside, he found a card with a... Read More