Service dog graduates with military veteran
RUSSELLVILLE — Eddie Gunter, a military veteran who lives in Hot Springs, was accompanied by a special companion when he graduated earlier this month from Arkansas Tech University.
Star, his 7-and-a-half-year-old service dog, was with Gunter every step of the way to receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree May 13 at John E. Tucker Coliseum, including the walk across the coliseum floor in her own cap and gown, the university said in a news release.
“(Star) is my savior when I’m down and my companion when I’m up,” Gunter said. “My wife (Maria) is my best friend, and Star is right there in the same capacity. I think I care about each of them about equally. To have both of them here today and for Star to get to walk with me, it’s icing on the cake.”
Gunter graduated from Russellville High School in 1987 and began classes at Arkansas Tech that fall.
“College probably wasn’t the first thing on my mind at that time,” said Gunter. “I was still young — 18 years old. About two semesters in, the dean invited me to take a vacation. That vacation is what ultimately got me into the military.”
Gunter served as a medic in the U.S. Army. The years after his retirement from the service were trying times.
“I was struggling a lot with drinking, alcoholism and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder),” said Gunter. “I went to the inpatient treatment at the V.A. there at North Little Rock.
It didn’t go really well the first go-round. That’s an eight-week process.
“It didn’t go very well, and I didn’t take it very well. I was short two weeks of making the whole program. The second time I went into the program, I was more open-minded because I knew I needed to get something to change.”
The change was made possible, in part, by Dr. Robert G. Zepecki, a veterinarian from Hot Springs who connects veterans with assistance dogs. Zepecki, or “Dr. Bob” as Gunter calls him, arranged for a service dog named Charlie to live with the patients on his floor at the treatment center. Charlie and Gunter bonded.
“Dr. Bob was a blessing in getting this program worked out,” said Gunter. “They trusted me a little bit with Charlie, and I took Charlie to Petco. When we took Charlie to Petco is when I met Star. She was there with a rehab rescue group. As soon as I walked up to Star, and Star walked up to me, if you ever believed in love at first sight or that something was meant to be, that’s what I felt that day.”
Gunter had completed his therapy within a short period of time and Star was seated beside him for the car ride home to Hot Springs. They’ve been together ever since.
It was about the same time Gunter resumed his education at Arkansas Tech. He took around half his classes online and half in person, commuting from Hot Springs to Russellville for Tuesday and Thursday classes.
Gunter is now a graduate of Arkansas Tech almost 30 years after he began his studies. He received his degree in rehabilitation science and psychology.
“Knowing the people and the doctors that had helped me along to get from the point of, let’s say drinking a fifth of whiskey every day and not wanting to get out of bed or leave my house, to wanting to leave my house and wanting to consider going to school, that adds some fuel to the fire,” said Gunter.
“When I finally decided that rehabilitation science and psychology were for me, it just kind of fueled that fire a little more because I was learning about me. I want to work with other veterans because I know how many people helped me to get here. If people knew me five or eight years ago, down and out and battered and beaten as I was, if I can do it, anybody can do it. That’d be something I’d want every veteran in the country to hear.”