Southwest Helps Connect Service Dogs with Veterans

Recent studies indicate that nearly one in five returning soldiers come home with some form of PTSD. Suicide, depression and social disorders are among the most common ways the disorder manifest itself.

While solutions are complicated, one possible avenue available to veterans might be as simple as spending time with a carefully trained service dog. Enter Freedom Fur, a Texas-based non-profit organization that strives to connect trained dogs with veterans battling PTSD.

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While training the dogs is the organization’s main focus, getting the dogs to the veterans can prove to be more challenging. Now, thanks to a new partnership, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is extending Freedom Fur’s reach.

Southwest has developed S.W.A.T.T. or Southwest Airlines Transport Teams, which are comprised of employees who volunteer to travel with the animals on their days off.

"We live in a country where men and women have given their lives for us, and I feel that this organization is great in the sense now we can give back to them," said Erika Plowman, one such Southwest Airlines volunteer, according to a report at News Channel 10 in Amarillo, Texas.

"By having the transport team work alongside us, we're able to get them to the veterans," said Josh Brown, president of Freedom Fur. "We're going to do the basic obedience training, but once those veterans get the dog, they can start bonding with their animal and we won't have the animals that drop out because the person isn't committed to it.”

Plowman says knowing the impact the dogs will have on the veterans makes it worth working on her days off.

Southwest is no stranger to charitable endeavors. The airline made headlines in August when it airlifted several hundred stranded passengers and employees from Houston Hobby airport after the facility flooded during Hurricane Harvey.

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The airline’s efforts also earned it the moniker “favorite airline” among travel industry professionals in a YouGov study. Southwest also recently announced a major expansion into Hawaii.

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