By Todd DePastino
VBC member Sue Watson has let us know that Warrior Canine Connection (WCC) has named its latest service dog after our own Julia Parsons!
Sue is WCC Area Program Manager & Service Dog Training Instructor in Pittsburgh, and she was instrumental in honoring World War II Navy WAVE Lieutenant Julia Parsons with service dog Julia II.
Julia I was one-of-a-kind, a brilliant woman whose secret work helped turn the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic, and whose life after the war reflected humility and service.
Lt. Parsons was assigned to the SHARK Division at the Naval Communications Annex in Washington, D.C. There, in a converted girls’ school turned top-secret intelligence center, she helped decode German Enigma transmissions from U-boats prowling the North Atlantic. The work was exacting, relentless, and profoundly consequential. By breaking enemy communications that directed submarines toward Allied convoys, Julia and her colleagues directly contributed to Allied victory at sea.
A 1942 graduate of Carnegie Tech, Julia joined the Navy after reading about a new program commissioning women officers. She trained at Smith College, studying cryptology, physics, and naval operations, before reporting to Washington. Using the captured M4 Enigma machine and codebooks recovered from the German submarine U-559, her team unlocked vital intelligence. When those codes expired, Julia helped identify a recurring German weather message, an analytical breakthrough that allowed her section to reconstruct new codes and continue reading U-boat traffic for the remainder of the war.
When the war ended, Julia quietly stepped out of uniform and returned home. Bound by oath, she spoke nothing of her wartime work, not even to her husband, until the mission was declassified in the 1990s. She remained a lifelong advocate for education, service, and remembrance. Her sharp mind, humility, and humor made her a cherished friend and an inspiration to all who knew her. Julia Parsons passed away in April 2024 at the age of 104, having lived a life of quiet heroism.
It is a fitting tribute, then, that her name now lives on through Warrior Canine Connection, a program dedicated to helping veterans heal by serving others.
About Warrior Canine Connection
Warrior Canine Connection utilizes a Mission Based Trauma Recovery (MBTR) model that helps recovering service members reconnect with life, their families, their communities, and one another. Rather than focusing solely on receiving help, veterans in the program take on a mission: raising and training service dogs for fellow wounded veterans.
From birth through adulthood, warriors work hands-on with dogs that will go on to support veterans living with post-traumatic stress (PTS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other invisible wounds. In the process, the trainers themselves benefit from the powerful human-animal bond. Teaching a dog that the world is a safe place requires patience, consistency, and positive emotion—and along the way, warriors often rediscover those qualities in themselves.
The model grew out of an unexpected moment nearly three decades ago, when licensed clinical social worker Rick Yount watched his therapy dog, Gabe, instinctively comfort a traumatized child entering foster care. That experience planted a seed. In 2008, as service members began returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with severe physical and psychological injuries, Yount launched the first warrior dog-training program at the Palo Alto VA. The approach proved effective, non-pharmaceutical, and deeply human.
Since then, Warrior Canine Connection has expanded to VA and DoD medical centers across the country, including Walter Reed, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, and—most recently—Pittsburgh. Thousands of service members and veterans have participated. Many report improvements not only in their own well-being, but in family life, parenting, and their ability to engage with the world again.
By naming Julia II in honor of Lt. Julia Parsons, Warrior Canine Connection links two generations of service: a World War II cryptologist who helped defeat fascism through intellect and perseverance, and today’s veterans who are healing by helping one another. It is a living legacy—one grounded in duty, compassion, and the belief that service, in many forms, can still change lives.
