A Harlem woman who served in the National Guard, worked in the ruins of Ground Zero and was later deployed during the Iraq War is sharing the deeply personal story of how a highly trained poodle helped keep her alive.
Celeste Henry-Kemper, 66, told The Post that her Upper Manhattan National Guard unit was called up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, sending her into lower Manhattan to transport critical supplies for two grueling weeks.
Her duties also took her to the Church Street Post Office, located near the devastated World Trade Center site, where she helped with cleanup efforts, as well as on trips to the morgue.
In 2003, after the United States launched its invasion of Iraq, Henry-Kemper was deployed to Kuwait, where she again supported military supply operations.
Before she was sent into the disaster zone, Henry-Kemper said she watched the Twin Towers burn and fall while working as a New York state social worker at a substance-abuse treatment program inside Kingsborough Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn.
Just two days later, she found herself in the heart of the destruction as a member of the National Guard.
“It was horrible down there,” Henry-Kemper said. “Debris was everywhere. It looked like a war zone.”
At the time, she was already living with a mild form of lupus, a condition she said became increasingly severe after her service.
“My hair fell out,” Henry-Kemper said.
She said she was mentally and physically spent even before heading to Kuwait for a year on its border with Iraq.
She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had two hip replacements.
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Henry-Kemper also suffered from sinusitis and acid reflux.
Over time, she said, she became more reclusive.
Then a fellow veteran told her about the wonderful experience he had after being connected to a service dog through K9s For Warriors, the nation’s leading organization that provides trained service dogs for free to veterans suffering from the wounds of war.
She decided to apply herself and was paired with her service dog Titan, a poodle, in 2024.
Titan has changed, and saved, her life, she said.
“I take Titan everywhere. It’s therapeutic. I’m socializing more. Just being with him opens up conversations with people,” the Brooklyn native said.
“Everyone loves to pet him.”
Before Titan, she avoided crowded places and limited herself to people she already knew.
She even took Titan on a cruise ship.
Titan is well-trained to serve as a buffer when she’s having a panic attack.
Henry-Kemper can lean on him to get up from a seat and to hold onto him until she calms down, she said.
“I’m really grateful I was able to get Titan,” she said.
“I’m able to hold him, rub him and pass through the panic attack.”
