Service dog walks as the best man at army vet’s wedding

• Justin Lansford, a US Army veteran, was severely injured in 2012, and got paired with a service dog named Gabe.
• The two instantly hit it off and have since become each other’s best friend.
• Three years later in Justin and his now-wife Carol’s wedding in 2015, Gabe rightfully got the most precious role of being the best man!

To have “a pretty steady ‘aww’ throughout the entire wedding” is likely expected if a good dog is the best man marching down the aisle with the groom.

This happened at Justin and Carol Lansford’s wedding in 2015.

It was quite right for the groom to choose his best friend Gabe, his service dog, for the precious role of best man.

Justin and Gabe met around 2012 when Justin, a US Army veteran, was deployed in Afghanistan and sustained a severe injury.

“We struck an IED and it flipped my truck completely,” Justin said. “I had bilaterally severed femurs, which resulted in the amputation of my left leg.”

It was a misfortune that still managed to bring out something great. Justin was introduced to the Warrior Canine Connection, a nonprofit that pairs service dogs with wounded veterans, and was matched with Gabe.

“The second Justin walked into the room when they met, Gabe was wiggling, crying, and rolling on the floor,” Carol recalled.

Soon after, the two became each other’s best friend.

“Since day one, we’ve been joined to the hip,” Justin explained. “He’s there for me all day, every day.”

Gabe has been very valuable in Justin’s recovery, helping him and being his stable surface to lean on whenever he needed one.

“I have a prosthetic lubricant to slide my leg into place in the morning and he can retrieve that,” Justin shared.

These and all the other things Gabe does for Justin were more than enough reasons why Gabe got the most precious role in Justin’s wedding.

“He goes everywhere I go,” Justin said. “He’s certainly there to pick me up emotionally when I need it. Why would the wedding be any different?”

Just like anybody else, the best man of course looked dashing in a custom-made Army uniform!

“It was really cool to have him right by me,” Justin said. “I don’t think there was a dry eye at that point. It was a pretty steady ‘aww’ throughout the entire wedding.”

Carol has also developed a special bond with Gabe. And she couldn’t agree more that Gabe was the most fitting friend to be his husband’s best man on their special day.

“Justin and Gabe go everywhere together and our wedding did not seem like it should be any different of an occasion,” she said. “He is a huge part of our life and deserves to share in the moment with us.”

Source: Inspire More