GRAY, Ga. — Saturday is Veterans Day and one local veteran is putting a paws-itive spin on it.
Jeramie Frasure is a disabled Marine veteran who's saving lives on both ends of the leash.
Now, he and his wife are volunteer trainers for Working Dogs For Vets and they're connecting their service for their country to their pups serving their community.
He holds classes on Friday mornings on his farm, BellaBlue Farm in Gray. He invites other veterans to get that first-hand training so their service dogs can graduate through the State of Georgia ADA.
"They help us, we help them, and that's the way it should be," Frasure said. "I didn't learn how to train dogs 20 or 40 years ago, someone showed me. Somebody taught me and there's a lot of things that you can learn if you just pay attention."
After a dog day's worth of training on Veterans Day, Frasure talked about his time serving in the medical unit for the Marines.
"Each one of us were brave enough to sign that line," Frasure said. "When I got injured, I did the work up to go on the deployment, but when my group was about to be deployed, they found out I was having seizures and said nope, you're not going."
Once Frasure came back home, he was invested in training his dog and helping others train theirs.
Four-year U.S. Navy veteran Russell Curry talked about his connection with his service dog Maggie.
"I'm gonna have to depend on her soon," Cury said. "I'm getting older in age and I'm having trouble keeping my balance at times and Jeramie was helping me train her to realize when I'm having a problem and to be there when I need her to hold me up and support me."
Curry is now a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, and he says he's participated in well over 200 funeral services.
"It's not that I like to go to funerals, it's the last thing I can do for that veteran is to just help carry him to his final resting place and it does me good to do that," Curry said.
Overall, Frasure wants to raise awareness on the resources these veterans and their service dogs have right in their backyards.
"In our little community, in Gray, I just see so many people helping each other and it's amazing," Frasure said.