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Battling PTSD

Service dog helps veteran in fight

Veterans Katie and Andrew Stemen pose in the office at the Presque Isle Power Plant with Katie’s new service dog, Stryker, who is a gift from the We Energies Employe’s Mutual Benefit Association. U.S. Army Sgt. Katie Stemen suffered traumatic brain injuries while serving overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stryker will help her regain independence. (Journal photo by Mary Wardell)

MARQUETTE — The administrative office of the Presque Isle Power Plant hushed to a reverent silence as U.S. Army Sgt. Katie Stemen, her new service dog at her feet, quietly described scenes of war in distant markets and dusty villages fraught with unexpected explosions, as well as curious children.

Stemen’s life was changed forever by her three tours overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, after multiple IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, left her with a traumatic brain injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other challenges. She served eight years total between the Army National Guard and the Army.

Katie and her husband, Andrew, a senior plant operator, were at the PIPP Monday afternoon to meet with Stryker, the newest member of their family, a service dog whose training was made possible by a grant from We Energies’ Employe’s Mutual Benefit Association.

Stemen was a petroleum supply specialist, serving in Ishpeming’s 107th engineering battalion in Iraq from ’07-’08, then two tours in Afghanistan in ’09-’10 and 2012. She encountered explosions on all three tours, though the effects wouldn’t become clear until she returned home, where she has fought to regain her mobility, verbal and other skills.

“It makes your day go by a lot faster when stuff comes up,” Stemen remembered, speaking slowly and deliberately. “You turn around the corner and you don’t know what it is. And all of a sudden, you hear a loud noise and then you’re up against the wall, and you don’t know why until you find out that was a concussion blast from an IED.

“Yeah, it’s different, but when you’re over there for a long time, you get used to it.”

The hardest part is returning to civillian life, she added.

“It’s like a whole different world, when you come home,” Stemen said. “Because when you come back, everybody’s different. Everything else is changed. It’s like you went to Mars and came back.”

Her husband, a private first class in the Army National Guard, said in combat, you always have a battle buddy by your side.

“So someone’s always watching your back, or watching your six,” Andrew said. “Coming out of the service, it can be very difficult to lose that.”

They hope Stryker — a German shepherd who has been training with Stemen and handler Ron Monroe since about March — can be her buddy for the battles she now faces at home.

“Hopefully we won’t have to go shopping at midnight anymore,” Andrew said, who works rotating 12-hour shifts at the plant. “Because right now, we live our lives around PTSD.”

Monroe has been training service dogs for 30 years, and recently decided to specialize in training dogs for veterans at a reduced price. Stryker will be able to pull a grocery cart in the store, replace Stemen’s need for a cane, and offer many other special skills.

Stemen found Monroe online and soon discovered a personal connection with him. Her mother and his mother went to school together.

“So automatically we had a connection and a bond,” Andrew said, adding that it was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Monroe, who lives downstate in the metro Detroit area, said parting ways with Stryker is going to be tough.

“But it’s not like losing your best friend when he’s going for a cause,” Monroe said. “That softens things a great deal.”

Gaining the Stemens as friends is one of the blessings of being a trainer, he added.

“As Andy mentioned, it’s not just a transaction by any means,” Monroe said.

Monroe and his wife Diane originally named the dog Riker, after Capt. Will Riker from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

But Stemen asked on her first meeting with Riker if she could call him Stryker, after the armored vehicle she drove in the desert, which was her first line of defense. Now Stryker the service dog will take on that role in the grocery store, on the street, at home and anywhere Stemen goes.

“We’d just like to say thank you, EMBA, WE Energies, this takes a load off us. It’s been very tough,” Andrew said. “This is (going to) give Katie back a sense of normalcy.”

Stemen added that that’s their hope, just to be normal again.

“Not too normal,” Andrew added with a laugh.

EMBA Secretary Joe Kopinski — who, along with an executive committee, unanimously granted the funding to train Stryker — was present Monday afternoon at the office, where other military veterans also work.

“Thank you and all the veterans here for your service, for what you guys have done for all of us,” Kopinski said. “Know that it is appreciated. And Ron, thank you for what you do in providing beautiful dogs like this. This will be a day I won’t forget.”

Kopinski said EMBA, which gave out 54 grants and loans this year, is a 501(c)(8) fraternal organization that began as a Christmas gift to employees of We Energies in 1912, when electricity was in its infancy and fatalities common.

Kopinski said We Energies proudly sponsors Honor Flights for veterans in Wisconsin and supports the Fisher House in Milwaukee, which offers support and shelter for veterans and their families when receiving medical care.

Andrew and Katie both come from proud military backgrounds. Andrew’s father, Perry Stemen, was an army sergeant in Vietnam, earning four purple hearts, as well as silver and bronze stars.

Katie’s mom was the first female police officer in the Detroit-Ypsilanti area. Her grandfather survived the Battle of the Bulge. Her stepdad was in the Air Force and her uncle is a highly decorated officer in the Navy.

Andrew spoke of Katie’s accomplishments with visible pride and love.

“Being a sergeant or NCO, she sat in front and was responsible for everyone in that vehicle,” Andrew said of the armored vehicle Stemen’s dog is named for. “That’s rare for a female. … Because of Katie, her determination, the person that she is and the sergeant that she was and still is, she did many, many foot patrols, and it’s very, very rare for a woman to do that, even though women are in combat.”

Foot patrols are how she met with so many IEDs, he said.

Katie also remembered the children.

“We’d go walking in the village and clear buildings, then search for women and children,” she recalled. “Sometimes they’d cry and other times they’d be happy we were there, and I’d give everyone a little piece of candy or piece of gum and they always liked that. We’re not supposed to do that but they liked it. They remembered me when I had to go through again, which made it easier.”

She said sometimes the locals would return the favor by sharing pomegranates or naan, a traditional bread.

Now she is still getting accustomed to the unregimented life of a civillian, where things like picking out clothes can be a challenge, she said.

“You’re used to being around people in uniforms,” Stemen said. “When you’re on deployment, you get used to drab colors. You get home and see bright colors and loud noises, it’s hard.”

Despite the challenges, Stemen is ready to regain her independence, with Stryker’s help.

“I’m actually a cat person,” she admitted. “But I can’t have a cat go with me everywhere. … A dog that can help me is just as good.”

Mary Wardell can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248.

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