by Mary Jo Blackwood, Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming Public Affairs
Every month we should be celebrating both our volunteers and our military. Nice when we can do both! Lieutenant Colonel Deanna M. Tuley was born on an air force base and grew up in a military family. Her father, Everett, retired as a Senior Master Sergeant after 28 years of service. Her brother, John, retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 20 years of service.
After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service, she enlisted and attended Officer Training and Intelligence Schools, becoming an Intelligence Officer. She ended up in Washington DC, where she was selected for the Air Force Funded Legal Education Program and attended the Washington College of Law to receive her law degree. Following her graduation, she held various legal positions at Air Force installations in North Carolina, Washington DC, Colorado and Washington State.
During her last two assignments, she served as the Staff Judge Advocate at Falcon Air Base (AB) (now Schriever Air Force Base) and McChord AFB. Starting in July 1995, she was the 62nd Airlift Wing Staff Judge Advocate at McCord Air Force Base and its senior legal advisor. After many awards and commendations, she retired from the military in 1998.
Lt. Col Tuley also has a further distinction because of her military career and her membership in the Chickasaw Nation. She has been designated a Chickasaw Warrior, a distinction only given for the last ten years to members of the Nation who have served with distinction in the United States Military. She is featured in the Chickasaw Nation Council House Museum in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
Since leaving the Military, she has put her legal training to good use as a much sought-after mediator and arbitrator; and doing contract mediation and arbitration for Colorado and various federal and national entities. Surprisingly, she also has time to volunteer with the American Red Cross!
There are many capacities under which a volunteer can serve the Red Cross. For Lt. Col Tuley, that path lay through her love of dogs and the joy they can bring to hospitalized service members, their families and veterans. After moving to Colorado in 2002, she started doing therapy dog visitations to the Vail Valley Medical Center in 2005. In 2009, she joined the therapy dog program at Evans Army Community Hospital, Fort Carson, Colorado.
Tuley explains; “military hospitals with Red Cross volunteer programs can establish a therapy dog program through the Red Cross. Various military hospitals around the country have Red Cross volunteer programs, but not all have therapy dog programs. There are therapy dog programs at major military installations in the U.S. and overseas locations. Before COVID restrictions were in place, we proactively opted to suspend our “in-hospital” program.”
Tuley was part of a team that helped rewrite the guidance for military hospitals with therapy dog visitation programs. Her biggest interest has always been getting her therapy dogs into military hospitals. “My primary focus has always been getting the dogs out and about where they can do the most good.”
She helped bridge the pandemic gap by having a life-size cutout of her current therapy dog Penny at Evans Army Community Hospital and moving from department to department, as featured in an earlier blog. Now there are life-size cutouts of seven other therapy dogs at the hospital, too.
As we move back into some semblance of normalcy, Tuley hopes that the therapy dog visitation programs at the military hospitals in the U.S. and overseas will resume. She has seen the good they can do, and the Red Cross agrees that this program is another way to support our Armed Services in a way consistent with our ideals.
