For retired veteran Rafael Jarvis, his service dog Ben is more than a companion, the two are best friends. The pair connected through Canines for Warriors, an organization that gives service dogs to veterans living with PTSD. Ben, who his owner says loves to get rubs, has become a constant presence at Jarvis's side.
Jarvis brings a long record of service to the partnership. He spent more than 20 years in the Army National Guard, and he also served as a police officer in the city. That dual career eventually placed him at the center of one of the most traumatic days in New York's history, and in its long aftermath.
On September 11th, 2001, Jarvis got the call to head to Ground Zero. All he could see, he recalled, was dust and rubble, that was it. The scene marked the start of a long and grueling stretch of work in the ruins of the World Trade Center site, far from any normal police or military assignment.
For the next nine months, Jarvis said, he worked 12 to 16 hours a day. After finishing his shifts, he and others would go back to help with the rubble, digging in to search through the debris. It was rough, he said, a relentless effort in the aftermath of the attacks that would leave a lasting mark on him.
The trauma from war and from 9/11 eventually became too much to carry. Jarvis described pulling away from those around him, saying he was snapping at people, not talking to anybody and feeling deeply lonely. The weight of what he had lived through had begun to isolate him from the people in his life.
That is when Canines for Warriors stepped in. The organization paired Jarvis with Ben, and he said it helped him a whole lot and changed his life around, because now he goes everywhere with the dog. Ben has become a perfect companion for road trips, adventures and anything else life brings, always there to have his back.
The impact reaches well beyond one veteran. Canines for Warriors has paired more than 1,000 veterans with service dogs, and the program has also rescued more than 2,000 dogs along the way. For Jarvis, that mission turned a difficult chapter into a new partnership, one he now leans on every single day.