Donald Jarvis served his
country in the Massachusetts Army National Guard as a Combat Engineer. During his service, Donald served in both Iraq and Afghanistan doing ‘Route Clearance’. Route Clearance is a major part of counter-IED warfare. The job of Route Clearance is to prevent IED emplacement and ensure freedom of movement along supply routes for US and friendly coalition forces. In both deployments he operated the Buffalo (Mine Protected Vehicle) primarily as the vehicle operator and as secondary hydraulic arm operator.
During Donald’s tour in Afghanistan his vehicle was struck by an IED, which led him to return to the states sooner for further medical treatment. After six months of receiving treatment at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia he returned back to his unit in Massachusetts.
August 2013, Donald was linked up with his service dog Mocha, a black lab mix. Through an non-profit organization called Operation Delta Dog out of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Operation Delta Dog focuses on rescuing dogs from shelters and training them to be service dogs for veterans with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). Since being discharged from the service Donald has gone on and continued to serve and stay connected with the veteran community.
Donald Jarvis 