New London — Tom Williamson was having a flashback one night recently when he felt a nudging at his elbow. Next thing he knew, Sequoia, his service dog, a golden retriever-Labrador mix, was wedging herself between his legs, her paws on his shoulders, practically hugging him.

“That’s what she’s trained to do, calm me down, bring me back to the world,” said Williamson, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran.

The 75-year-old Williamson and the 1½-year-old Sequoia had been paired together for just three days at that point.

“We’re still in the bonding period,” Williamson said last week during an interview at his New London home, having just completed the first official training session with Sequoia a day before.

Williamson spent nearly 20 years in the Navy as a corpsman, including several tours to Vietnam, engaged in a type of conflict that, he said, was against what he’d been taught: a peaceful coexistence.

As a corpsman, Williamson technically was only supposed to carry a .45 caliber pistol, and was only supposed to draw it if he was protecting a patient, but he was assigned to special operations units during the war, which meant he did much more than care for the wounded.

He participated in some of the most major events in the war, including the longest and most costly rescue during the war, of Lt. Col. Iceal E. Hambleton, an Air Force navigator, whose aircraft was shot down over North Vietnam on April 2, 1972. He spent 11 days behind enemy lines before a U.S.-led commando team found him. Williamson was the first medical professional to treat Hambleton after he was found, and stabilized him so he could be transported by helicopter to the hospital.

“Some people have the ability to compartmentalize, and that’s what I basically did, is to compartmentalize, but unfortunately in later life that’s come back to haunt me in there with the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), the pains that I have from the combat injuries,” Williamson said. “I’ve had to live with those for my whole life.”

There are days when he goes through “massive depression,” he said, and that’s the main reason he decided to get Sequoia. But a service dog like Sequoia, who is trained to help Williamson, a single-leg amputee who uses a wheelchair, costs about $25,000.

That’s where Nik Alveras, owner of 2 Brothers Pizza in Salem, and a host of others come in. Alveras, who also served in the military, threw a fundraiser, with the help of 25 breweries, called “Cans 4 Tom,” raising $8,000. The New London fire and police departments also donated to the cause, as did Pratt & Whitney, the Waterford-based Cactus Jack Foundation (which also contributed money to buy Williamson a wheelchair van), and numerous individual donors.

Williamson, who has five Purple Hearts, was seriously injured several times in combat, including in the leg, after getting struck with shrapnel, which went through his femoral artery, while serving in Vietnam in 1967. He almost lost the leg but was treated by a “savvy” doctor who knew about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, having studied it at Yale University.

While he battled infections in his right leg over the years, he was able to “hold onto it” until May of last year when he got a serious bone infection that resulted in his leg having to be amputated above the knee.

“For me, it’s frustrating in a way more because I can’t do some of the things I used to be able to do. I can’t go to the same places I used to be able to because I’m stuck. But I knew that was coming,” Williamson said.

While he “mentally prepared” for losing his leg a long time ago, he said it’s been hard on his husband, Bill, who has become his caretaker, “getting things I can’t get readily.”

Having Sequoia now helps. At their first training, Williamson learned how to teach her to fetch things for him — keys, a shoe — and open doors.

Williamson was a military brat, his father having served in the Navy, so he grew up all over the world, including spending some formative years in Germany just after World War II ended, and he said that shaped his view of the world.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve after receiving a notice in the mail that he needed to get a physical exam — a sign for a young man like him at the time that he’d likely soon be drafted, so he opted for to enlist in a Reserve unit. He said the year and a half he spent in the Marine Reserves before transferring to the Navy is a big part of why he’s alive today. 

“I attribute a lot of my survival to the Marine Corps training I received initially,” he said.

Williamson had a well-rounded military career and said he recommends military service to young seniors in high school.

"If you don't know what you want to do, go into the military, even if it's just for four years. Get it under your belt. It's going to give you responsibility. It's going to give you leadership. It's going to give you a chance to stand on your two feet and think," he said.

j.bergman@theday.com