Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast. As always, my name's James Gearing, and this week it is my absolute

honor to welcome on the show, Marine, member of the mission roll call team, and the founder of

Kaya's canines, Cole Lyle. So in this conversation, we discuss a host of topics from his own

journey into the military, his powerful mental health story, how a service dog

changed his life, fighting for holistic treatments to become available for veteran mental health,

the viral video of his own canine Kaya, unique challenges in tribal and rural areas, and so

much more. Now before we get to this incredibly

powerful conversation as I say every week, please just take a moment. Go to whichever app you

listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and leave a rating. Every single five-star

rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier for others to find.

And this is a free library of over 800 episodes now.

So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women's stories

so I can get them to every single person on planet Earth who needs

to hear them. So with that being said, I introduced to start by saying thank you so much for taking the time and coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.

Absolutely, James. Thanks for having me.

So where on planet Earth are we finding you this afternoon?

Well, right now I am in Bedford, New York.

I actually, earlier this morning, I had a 5.30 flight westchester or not excuse me uh syracuse new

york but there's no direct flight from there to uh here so i had to take a flight from uh

syracuse to dc and then all the way back up to new so my day started at 3.30 when my alarm went off for that 5.30 flight.

And, you know, I finally landed here and just, you know, getting ready for the weekend,

spending some time with family.

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