PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Worn leather tells a story. For Brett Simon, it tells a story of pain, resilience, and love.
"It's hard to look and see her vest over there and the leash and the collar," Simon said.
Behind Brett Simon's smile are many days locked in a dark room. For the last 11 years, every moment was with his service dog Reagan, who passed away three weeks ago.
"There's no doubt she saved my life and the life of our family because I was a mess she saved my life multiple times," Simon said.
Simon is a civilian K9 police bomb dog handler who served in Iraq. He came home in 2010 with PTSD and shortly after was connected with Reagan thanks to an old friend.
"Reagan and I connected through Anthony Caceres who was out of the United States Army and he found her in Atlanta, Georgia," he said. "He drove her to me actually on Veterans Day that year and presented her to me and said here's your dog. He and I shared that tour in Iraq together so it was pretty special that he brought her to me."
Whenever Simon descended into darkness, Raegan was always there to pull him out.
"The St. Augustine trip we did, the architecture of the alleyways were very similar to some of the cities in Mosul, Iraq that we would walk down and patrol. Following that architecture again, seeing it, hit a certain spot and we stopped for a second and I looked around and I just broke down. Reagan came right over to me and climbed in my lap," Simon said.
Simon held a memorial service for Reagan on Monday, her worn leather leash bringing back memories of pain, love, and stories of inspiration for those fighting every second of every day.
"Reach out to somebody, reach out to another veteran, reach out to a therapist. It doesn't always have to be a dog. We don't need to have 20 veterans a day committing suicide, there are options for them to get to reach out and call somebody. Don't suffer alone," Simon said.
Simon's mother, Shari Duval, is the founder of K9s for Warriors. An organization that pairs service dogs with veterans dealing with military-connected traumas.
Duval was inspired to start the organization after seeing Simon struggle with PTSD and the effect service dogs had in helping him cope with the trauma he suffered.