Home Of The Brave

Ron and Diane Monroe established Mission Six Service Dogs for Veterans in 2018 and have provided six dogs for deserving vets. But they don’t train only canines.

“We train the dogs,” says Ron Monroe, “and we also train the vets.”

Monroe, who went to high school in Onaway, has a special interest in serving veterans. He served as a military police officer during his Army enlistment, 1983–87. During that time, he received training to become a K-9 handler. Mission Six Service Dogs was born from a blend of Ron and Diane's skills and their admiration for veterans. But what motivated the couple to create Mission Six was something more specific: witnessing more and more servicemembers leaving today’s military with the kind of scars others don’t see.

“We’re focused on serving vets with PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury) Those are some invisible disabilities that are really prominent now,” he says. The Monroes believe the best way to help vets heal those wounds and regain independence is through what the call “the service dog experience.”

This week's Northern Express — sister publication of The Ticker — shares the story of the Monroes and their dogs, who are are donated by Humane Society branches and breeders from across Michigan. Mission Six depends on donations and fundraisers to keep operating. “We can't do this alone,” says Monroe. “I can train dogs and train vets, but we need help to fund it. We don't have big corporate funding, but we've had great community support, and we want veterans who think they might qualify to contact us.”

Read more in this week's Northern Express, available to read online and at one of nearly 700 newsstand spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.