JD and K-9 Kona

My name is J.D. Ingham. I am married to my wife Brittany, and we have 2 young children. I joined the National Guard in 2005. I was deployed to Iraq in 2009, where three members of my unit were killed while I was home on leave. As you can imagine, I was devastated, but I also felt responsible. I felt that if I had been there, maybe things would have been different. After returning home, the survivor’s guilt and the PTSD from all of my experiences just got worse. I have continuously suffered with nightmares, flashbacks, anger, outbursts, anxiety, and extreme sadness. In 2018, I married my wife Brittany, and she gave birth to our son Lane. The following year, several stressful situations brought my PTSD back to the forefront. I was again struggling more frequently, and more severely than ever before. In 2021 we had to say goodbye to the first dog I rescued after coming home from Iraq. This was another hard blow. Shortly after that, our daughter was born, and my sadness was masked by the joy of our growing family. A few months later, the PTSD symptoms were becoming more prevalent again. I was trying hard to fight through the demons and stressors, but it was again becoming too much to handle, and my wife called the VA to get me help. I was able to get back into therapy. A few weeks after starting therapy, my 14-year-old lab had to be put down, yet another devastating blow to me. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through. I told my wife we weren’t getting another dog anytime soon. Unbeknownst to me, she had other plans. She reached out to Soldiers 6 as she had been following their mission for quite some time. Ed and Dana reached out immediately, and had the perfect pup in mind for us. When we first met Kona, we knew instantly she was perfect for our family.