Area veteran uses fame to raise awareness

When Bill and Janet Austin went back to Delaware for a reunion earlier this month, they didn’t expect to make international news.

On Friday, Sept. 15, the couple rented out a room at Kathy’s Crab House & Family Restaurant in Delaware City, Del., hosting friends and family when something unexpected happened.

Bill has a service dog, a peppered-brindle Great Dane named JP, who is always by his side.

As Bill sat with friends, JP was sitting on the floor.

Another patron began complaining about JP to the server, Bill said.

The server asked Janet if she would mind talking with the upset woman, discussing Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

“I walked up to her at the register,” Janet started.

“I said, ‘Do you have a question about the dog?’” Janet said, adding that the woman then “wheeled” on her.

Janet replied to the woman’s response by explaining JP is ADA compliant, but the explanation wasn’t enough to satisfy the woman.

A friend of the Austins caught the confrontation on her phone.

In the three-minute video, a black woman is seen asking Kathy’s Crab House employees what they’re going to do about the dog being in the restaurant.

A man is quietly standing behind her as she begins to scream loudly, using profanities, while the Austins stand patiently as the woman carries on.

At one point, she screams, “It’s still nasty to me!”

She then screams at the Austins’ friend recording the incident, telling her not to get in her face because her daughter is watching the incident.

“When the girl (spun) on me, she (the friend recording the confrontation) went back into the room and got her phone” and proceeded to record the altercation.

Cops were called, Bill said, and asked if he wanted the woman arrested.

“I said no, education is the key here,” Bill said, adding that the confrontation would allow for a platform to educate people on the differences between service dogs, emotional support dogs and therapy dogs.

Each animal has different capabilities, which means each dog’s access to public places changes with each role.

Following the incident, the couple agrees that the feedback from around the world has been largely positive.

Since the incident, the couple has been interviewed by CNN and Inside Edition, as well as local stations on the east coast.

The attention hasn’t stopped there.

“This has gone all the way over to the U.K. and Australia,” Bill said.

During his time in the military, he served with British troops who have told him he’s popular overseas, “making the big time.”

“We’re very private in our life,” Bill said, adding that solitude is one of the reasons the couple moved to Montana.

The Austins, who live in Lake County, moved to Montana in 2012 from Delaware, in search of peace and quiet.

Janet said that the attention has given the Austins an opportunity to educate people about service dogs.

“It brings awareness on a couple of levels,” Bill said, adding that in addition to service dog awareness, information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be shared, as well as what he feels is the most important lesson to come of this.

“It was about respect,” Bill said, adding that although the woman loudly expressed her opinion, she’s still a human and deserves respect.

“I think we can all learn that at those times we become angry at something, maybe just take a step back and understand that… you would want the same respect.”

Both Bill and Janet said that the entire situation is not about race, but rather about behavior.

Retired from the Delaware Air National Guard as a Master Sargeant, Bill, 57, started his military career in the Army, later joining the Air National Guard as a communications specialist and later becoming a flight medic.

Completing extensive training in each field, Bill said he enjoyed the medical field the most.

In Delaware, he even volunteered as an EMT with the local volunteer fire department.

Part of what is called a liaison team, Bill said that he was one of a four-person team that included a doctor, a nurse and two operators.

He explained that the team is the first step to getting wounded troops in the field stabilized and eventually to a hospital for further treatment.

Austin completed two tours in Bosnia in the late 1990s, Kosovo in 2000, Afghanistan in 2002, Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and lastly, Afghanistan in 2009.

Janet said that during the last tour Bill experienced his injury — to the brain.

Bill said that he was entering a building and heard a blast, then he remembers ceiling tiles and other debris falling from the roof.

The kinetic energy from the blast rattled his brain, he explained, which meant his brain was shaken against his skull.

Upon coming back to the United States, Bill explained that he “was broken” because he wasn’t sure how to communicate in civilian terms what he experienced overseas.

He didn’t meet JP right away, Bill said.

It seemed as though JP filled a space within Bill, he said.

“When I got him (JP), I didn’t have him very long, maybe three months,” Bill began.

“(Janet) said, ‘Don’t you get it? … This is the first time in two years that you’ve laughed and smiled.’”

Bill said he responded to Janet saying that JP brings him peace.

Bill was training JP for another wounded warrior, but events didn’t go according to a plan set in place with a now-defunct non profit.

As they worked together, Bill and the dog grew attached to one another, with Bill telling Janet that he wanted to keep the then 6-month-old pup.

“Their connection couldn’t be denied,” Janet remembered.

JP, now 6 years old, is constantly at work.

He watches the world around him as he stands by Bill’s side.

When he is behind Bill, JP will stand behind him and push his own body weight into him to let him know that someone is coming.

As people come near Bill, JP calmly walks between Bill and others, creating a barrier by “blocking.”

When people unknowingly try to pet JP, he softly sniffs and ducks away, knowing he is supposed to watch his surroundings to protect Bill, Janet said.

Undivided attention is not the only thing JP provides his handler.

“He’s been trained to help me to remember take my medicine, “ Bill said, along with helping Bill with mobility.

Each night, JP lays on the floor on Bill’s side of the bed, and if Bill begins to have “bad flashbacks,” JP will start to lick Bill’s face, waking him up before the flashbacks “become full-blown.”

Janet explained that dogs have an ability to sense, which is why they are good for people that experience seizures or have diabetes.

“They can sense the changes in body chemistry,” she said, and after training, they know how to take care of their handler.

Bill noted that his brain injury, seizures and diabetic needs cannot be seen.

“All wounds are not visible.”

Kathy Wisowaty, owner of Kathy’s Crab House & Family Restaurant, messaged that the business is “focusing on making a positive out of” the situation by hosting a fundraiser in “October to bring awareness of PTSD and an injured Veteran’s need for a Service dog.”

Proceeds raised during the fundraiser, which will take place at the restaurant on Oct. 22, will then go to Montana’s Wounded Warriors organization, which was Bill’s choice.

For more information on service animals, visit https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm