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If you'd have pulled Billings resident Dee De Baker aside 15 years ago and told her she'd go on to spearhead a grassroots effort that would change the lives of countless Montana military veterans and a slew of rescue dogs, she might have laughed you out of the room. "I certainly didn't go into this with the intention of starting a nonprofit," says Dee De, the wife of a Montana National Guard scout platoon sergeant who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. "But it ended up being the dream I never knew I had." In 2005, her husband's up-armored Humvee was involved in an IED explosion, followed by multiple secondary blast incidents. He and his fellow soldiers all survived, but the impact of their hidden injuries had only begun. "On the outside, he looked just fine," Dee De recalls. But in reality, everything had changed. Dee De's husband was ultimately diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). "ere are days he's not allowed to drive. Days he bales anxiety and anger," she explains. "ere are days he doesn't resemble the man I fell in love with." During the most heartbreaking of those difficult days, this militar y wife noticed a remarkable phenomenon. "I watched him lay on the floor with his dogs, and I watched his demeanor change almost instantly," Dee De explains. "He calmed down. His anger dissipated. He became a bit more of the man I knew. And, of course, the dogs loved every moment of his aention." "It's prey transformational when you watch that kind of a relationship," she adds. ese simple yet powerful moments proved to be a catalyst for Dee De's true calling: to bring veterans and adoptable shelter dogs together and to provide them training as a team. And when she couldn't find an already-established organization providing such a service in Montana, she understood what she was meant to do. "Everybody should have a 'why' for what they do, and my 'why' is that I live with someone who has those challenges every day," she says. "I wanted to be able to honor his service and give back to veterans, and to help rescue dogs. ere's nothing greater than that for me." SIGNATURE MONTANA | 59 Photo by Eric Visocan Dog Tag Buddies brings rescue dogs and America's military heroes together.