We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Torre Willadsen . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Torre below.

Torre , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea for Dogs2DogTags (D2DT) came to Torre Willadsen when he was deployed to Afghanistan as a civilian contractor working with military dogs in 2012. During his time with the 7th Marines, he developed close bonds with dogs and dog handlers. When dog handler, Chris Van Etten, was wounded, Torre worked hard to help keep Chris and his dog, Harley, together during Chris’ recovery. Torre saw firsthand the profound effect a canine companion could have on a wounded man’s frame of mind during a difficult time. That’s when Torre knew he wanted to bring that kind of unconditional support to those back home struggling with post-traumatic stress.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was  recruited for this position. I had always had a family pet and loved dogs. My uncles and friends were big outdoorsman. I grew up with labs and that kind of turned into my upland hunting fascination. The relationship it created with dogs and the outdoors.
I just loved watching the dogs work and do what came so naturally to them, the team bond. I started actually enjoying the dog work more then the actual hunting process. It turned into a part-time job guiding hunts.
In my late 30’s it became more of a job as I started working for nationally known trainer’s like Jim VanEggen, Andy Atar. Both at the highest level of the dog training world. Both these men have put so much time into the world of Labrador Field trails, so much success and national titles on dogs it was a great experience to learn and watch the best in the world training dogs. (LABS)
This set the foundation of my getting hired, training the dogs, then the Marines and Army handlers for deployment.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As I gained knowledge from both of these men the training skills got more refined and improved over years. The time I spent with Andy really gave me the availability to preform the tasks that were required for the job I was offered with the DOD contracting company that obtained the contract to provide 800 Military Working Dogs ( MWD’s) on the new contract for the Marine Corps. The pivotal moment after a year of training the Inprovised Detection Dogs ( IDD’s ) was the training of the young Marines who were assigned to the training team I was assigned to as their in country Subject Matter Expert ( SME).

It wasn’t just training dogs anymore. We had lives at stake, young lives who had moms, dads, friends, siblings who loved them dearly.

The greatest realization after working with them for 2 months teaching them how to use their teammate (dogs) spending long days and nights getting them ready for work in a very dangerous place was thinking. Did I do my best, did I work hard enough, are they ready for this huge responsibility.

I was going to deploy with these 34 kids and their dogs to a very unforgiving area of combat.

It was impossible to find a way to not have the heavy impact on my mind that it did.

I was going to Afghanistan with the Marines I helped train to lead their brothers in combat down roads, walking paths and fields. All potentially deadly ground in Sangin Afghanistan.

The realization and realities of a mission mistake was death or serious injury of them or one of their brothers on patrol with them. Sangin was no joke of an Area if Operation (AO) my seniors at the company who were all Special Operation retired gave me many bits of advice. Don’t get to close, don’t think about anything but what’s going in the moment. Keep your mind free of what’s probably going to inevitable. They would tell me to focus on the training, don’t let the potential end game of this work be anything but successful. If you think about the bad things it will eat you up. It will render you inactive to your men. They will feel your fear. I did the best I could with their advice. The reality is it’s always there in your mind.

I knew from past Battalion reports what they were getting into. I talked to other guys that were on the ground before me. It was inevitable that something was going to happen to someone who I close to. It was the situation of WAR. I just couldn’t show it on the outside. I wasn’t the only one feeling that, they all were. We mostly made jokes about it. Talked about it. It’s a Marine way of dealing with the potential catastrophic situation we all were put into together. There’s no way to not bond with the man you go into a work environment like this. So when I hit the ground in Afghanistan it was all about mind set, one minute at time. Keeping the wolf at bay in the back of your mind.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

You don’t really know what kind of resilience you have until the unthinkable happens that’s been in the back of your mind held down by straight avoident thought. It happened. It happens as a building kind of recurring struggle. We were in the thick of it.
Marines were in battle. We spent a lot of time in a social media and communication lock out. It’s called River City. I don’t know why, but it is. When a Marine or Soldier in a combat zone is wounded they call River City. All we know is someone has been involved in an event. We didn’t know who or the outcome. The military wants to contact the family 1st, they shut off all outgoing calls, emails, social media until that objective is reached. Keeping my thoughts positive through that every time River City was called was a struggle to say the least. I had 34 guy’s, I knew their teams, I was a contact for their families. Waiting to find out who, was something I had to build resilience for. In June after going through that multiple times the thing I prayed for not to happen, happened. Just 8 hours after seeing Chris Van Etten I was woke by a young Marine, one of my handlers. He had that look, the one I never wanted to see.
The days that followed that event has put me where I stand today with the mission we all serve at dogs2dogtags.

Contact Info:

• Website: D2dt.org
• Instagram: Dogs2dogtags
• Facebook: Dogs2dogtags
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dogs2dogtags/
• Twitter: Dogs2dogtags
• Youtube: Dogs2dogtags

Image Credits
Photos by dogs2dogtags