Adapt & Overcome Mindset

Jason Howe is the Executive Director and his purpose is to never leave a Veteran behind. He has a keen interest in helping military Veterans with PTSD/TBI regain their lives. He knows firsthand that freedom isn’t free. Having had boots on the ground and a Veteran of the U.S. Navy. He strives to connect people and organizations in order to change the trajectory of our Veterans in need, His story of defying the odds empowers those he serves through the nonprofit, speaking and consulting. Jason has dedicated his life to helping others battling trauma, mental illness, and addiction, providing a firsthand story of adapting to overcome battles. Jason went through the program in Maine in 2017 with his 2021 Service Dog of the year Sobee for American Humane Hero Dog Awards, as the two of them brought the program to Missouri and now have taken over the reigns of the program.

Dear Younger Jason,

I am writing this letter to let you know the path you will take in life will be some of the toughest battles and wars, but you will take on each war and battle you face, and one day you will be happy in life.

At the beginning of your life, you will be alone, and then you will be adopted at a very young age. But you will be adopted into a great family who will love you just like their own. When I see you in the mirror, I see a caring, smart, and athletic boy, and what is instilled in you is the mental toughness of a warrior, with a winning attitude.

At 10 years old your parents will get divorced, and you will feel alone, but I assure you that you are not. You will hide your pain and feelings inside until you can’t take it anymore and you explode. But I promise you will be ok. You are going to feel like a failure and told you will not amount to anything, but Jason please know this, they are wrong.

You're going to face challenges – big and small. When those tough times come, remember that you're more resilient than you realize. Each obstacle is a chance to learn and grow. Don't shy away from difficulties; instead, face them head-on with courage and determination.

You will learn a lot of life lessons playing Football, Baseball and Hockey. Your best sport will be hockey and you will be good at it. Hockey will teach you the most of all, as you are a very likeable young man, but when the rink doors close and the game begins, something inside you will change, and you treat it like war. This is a good thing, and it will teach you very valuable life lessons that lie ahead for you. At this age you may not fully understand what those lessons will teach you, but soon you will find out and be faced with many life challenges.

At the end of your Senior year in high school you will meet your biological mother, and you will have so many emotions and struggle with how to react to them.

You will move to Florida in pursuit of your favorite sport, in which you will find trouble as you will be introduced to different kinds of drugs, beginning with ecstasy and more dangerous drugs. You will soon find your way back to Maine and one night you will be drinking with your friends and find yourself getting pulled over by the police and arrested for drinking and driving. You will make mistakes. You are going to feel like a failure and told you will not amount to anything, but Jason please know this, they are wrong.

You will be 22 years old enlisting into the United States Navy, after your grandfather “Bump”. You will feel better about yourself, and you will feel like you are making your family proud. You will travel the world and see many different cultures. You will wear that uniform proudly, and you will love what it stands for.

You will meet the mother of your two children in Texas, you will get married, and it will be short lived. You will fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you will come home. You will come home a different young man, and you will live in the Midwest Missouri to be exact. You will live alone in Missouri not knowing anyone. You will feel lost, and you will jump around from house to house, job to job. You will be introduced to a drug called Meth.

While you promised you would only try it one time and never again, it didn’t work out that way. It took away your pain like nothing else. This drug will lead you down a path you never imagined yourself on.

You will lose everything, your job, your house, your family and friends, most importantly you will lose your kids. You will begin using a needle and shooting up the meth. You will overdose one night and find yourself in a hospital. You will go in and out of rehab centers 8 times. You will write two different suicide notes. The more you use the more you must spend, you will begin spending $2500 a month on your drug habit chasing the next rush in your arm.

You will find yourself in the toughest fight of your life. You are going to feel like a failure and told you will not amount to anything, but Jason please know this, they are wrong.

On October 22nd, 2016, you will find it in you to put your game face on and take on the battle of addiction for the rest of your life one day at a time. You get on a bus, leaving your kids in Missouri, going back to Maine, where your family will not be there for you, because of everything you will put them through.

Your mother will be going through her own battles, after just losing your step father and your grandmother. Your mother does not have the strength in her to have you home, as she will feel you are the next family member that will die. Your Dad will still love you, but he will be tired of dealing with you as he has already seen too much and cannot keep watching you kill yourself with drugs. You are going to feel like a failure and told you will not amount to anything. But Jason, please know this. They are wrong.

An organization K9s On the Front Line will be your greatest gift, and it will come in the form of 4 legs named Sobee. When you get her, you will do things together, you will continue to pray each day and by the grace of God, you will stay from drugs.

Sobriety will give you, your kids back, and be the dad you have always wanted to be, you will find your purpose in life, and you will share your struggles with others. You will run a non-profit and will help other Veterans restore their life with Service dogs and hope. Through sobriety and dog training, you will meet the love of your life Lynn and a stepson named Jackson. You will marry Lynn and you will begin to share your story even more. You will help be the voice for those you are helping until they have a voice of their own, you will no longer feel shame and you will enjoy your life one day at a time.

Jason Howe is a recognized expert in addiction recovery, trauma and overcoming
mental illness. He is an author, speaker and consultant, as well as the Executive Director for
K9s on the Front-Line. He is a combat veteran of the U.S. Navy, where he
served from (phone number hidden)7 with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Like so many
Veterans, Jason struggled severely with reintegrating back into society upon his
return from combat. He turned to drugs to cope.

After losing everything, becoming homeless and hitting rock bottom, he got a one-
way bus ticket and traveled back to his home state of Maine. While there, he was
introduced to the program, K9s on the Front Line and his battle buddy, Sobee, who
was two days away from being euthanized in a Georgia kill shelter.

The program transformed Jason's life so significantly, he decided to
move back to Missouri, further his education and became a Master Dog
Trainer and so he could give back to so many of his brothers and sisters
that needed help. Jason then began K9s on the Front-Line Missouri, so
he could be for others what he needed just a few years prior. Since
beginning the program here in 2018, Jason and K9s on the Front Line
have helped over 200 Veterans and service dogs transform their lives,
with the help of generous Missourians.

K9s on the Front-Line pairs combat Veterans who struggle with PTSD or TBI with
mostly rescue dogs, putting them through a 22 week training program. The program
consists of weekly in-person classes, hundreds of hours of independent training
and a series of tests, ultimately resulting in a trained service dog that has been
trained to perform specific tasks to help meet the Veteran's needs. Jason has now
been handed the reins over the entire national non-profit and currently serves as the
Executive Director for K9s on the Front Line.

Jason also dedicates his life to helping Veterans and civilians who battle trauma,
mental illness, and addiction. He released his first book in August, called.
Unleashed: The Powerfully Simple Path to Adapt and Overcome Trauma, Addiction

and the Silent Battle with Mental Illness. The combination of his proven strategies
and firsthand stories of overcoming battles empowers others to witness and
implement healing and hope.

Jason's story of defying the odds empowers those he serves through his writing,
workshops, consulting and speaking engagements. Jason always tells others, "We
never fail if we don't give up. Never give up"

I just speak!