‘The world just exploded’ | Veteran who trains service dogs for free is now in need of help of his own

James Dickerson’s life was flipped upside down while changing a tire on a Louisiana road.

SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio veteran who trains and gives service dogs to veterans for free, now needs help of his own. 

James Dickerson runs the successful Crowley Dickerson Through the Eyes of a Service Dog Facebook page, with 2,600 followers and counting tuning into the posts he writes through his service dog’s perspective. 

“I’ve got everybody from New Zealand to Korea, you know, that I communicate with, and everybody get something out of it,” he said. “You know, whether you’re a veteran. I’ve never met a person who isn’t broken in some way.”

But perhaps, Dickerson is most known for training service dogs and giving them to veterans for free. 

“What we’re doing in the veteran community, that’s what’s important,” Dickerson said. 

When coming back from a road trip, on Nov. 26, he was checking his flat tire near Lake Charles, Louisiana when an unhitched mobile home crashed into his RV and truck. Dickerson calls that RV home and his dogs were inside the truck. 

“The world just exploded,” he recalled. “When we went down, we had the RV between us and I-10. When we got up,  there was nothing between us, it came right over the top of us. To be honest, I thought my dogs were dead. They were cut out from the glass pretty good and banged up. I’m sure the airbags deploy him. Knocked them around a lot, but they were alive.”

Currently, he is staying in an AirB&B in Hondo, but admits he’s shaken up. 

“I’ve dealt with things of this nature,” Dickerson stated. “I mean, I’ve been a PTSD vet for a long time. And it really sucks to feel this way again, this intensity.”

During this time of year, he is helping people repair from hurricane damage. That’s how he’s able to give the dogs to the veterans for free. 

“You know, there’s a lot of families literally that won’t get covered up right now,” he said. “I just can’t work. So, it’s one of the hardest things for me right now. I feel like I’m letting everybody down.”

As Dickerson continues to try to keep his spirits high, there is a GoFundMe that was started to try to help him get back on his feet. 

“What’s come of all this is, is the realization that I really was hurt, and it matters, and we’re making an impact,” he said. “And it’s time to let people through the door.”

To donate to the GoFundMe, click HERE. 

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