By Liv Stecker

Usually when you hear about a vet in a farm setting, visions of elbow high gloves, giant syringes and horse pills come to mind, but Zach Beer is working to redefine that. A United States Army Veteran, Zach was a Multi Channel Systems Operator (31Romeo). Serving through seven months of deployment in Bosnia on the heels of one of the most violent conflicts in recent history. Coming home after his time in the army, Zach faced the same struggle that many U.S. veterans deal with: finding a way to connect with real life.

Aside from the rigorous structure and discipline of military training and the lifestyle that comes with it, soldiers, sailors and airmen in all branches of the military are often exposed to a whole different spectrum of reality than comfortable North American lifestyles could prepare them for. In the Bosnian war alone, the effects of ethnic cleansing, systematic rape and torture haunted a shell-shocked country and transformed the lives of many young soldiers deployed there as peacekeepers. Enlisting, at an impressionable age, before the pre-frontal cortex (which is the reasoning portion) of the brain is fully developed, many young men and women have faced unthinkable human tragedy, triumph and evil before they have held a regular job.

After discharge from the military, many veterans have a hard time coming to terms with the reality of everyday American life. “A lot of guys get out and don’t know where to go,” says Beer, and often they turn to the easiest and most readily available coping devices - drugs and alcohol. “Some guys just slip off into the woods for six years,” says Zach, trying to make sense of civilian life.

The hardest thing for friends and family back home to remember about their loved ones when they come home, is that the issues they face aren’t imaginary. “I didn’t get this way on my own,” Beer says, referring to the formative process of time served in the military. While they are still active, service members are surrounded by brothers and sisters in arms who have seen and experienced the same things and can relate to the harsh reality of life outside of our peaceful borders.

PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, was first officially diagnosed as “gross stress reaction” in veterans of the Korean War, and references to PTSD appeared as Vietnam War vets came home to a hostile nation with no direction to turn for help. For soldiers throughout history, the horrors of war have been predominantly held hostage to social norms that required families to internalize the trauma and after effects of the veterans that they loved. “Family values were stronger,” Beer says of the generation emerging from service in World War II. Certain behaviors in the home were tolerated and to an extent, wives were expected to “suck it up,” and give their heroes the leeway they needed to cope.

World War I and II soldiers were also drafted en masse with neighbors, classmates and relatives from the same towns, and after the war returned home with a group of comrades to settle in the same neighborhoods and get to the business of creating families and building communities. American Legion branches were formed, Veterans of Foreign War posts stood ready to provide the network of support for soldiers who were on a mission to rebuild a nation shattered by war and economic crisis.

Fast forward to the end of the 21st century and returning vets come home to a lifestyle rife with every imaginable convenience, unemployment rates that would be unimaginable to our grandparents and trauma from battlefield experiences. Some modern day vets are lucky to find a minimum wage job that is as unfulfilling as it is financially impossible, all while coping with the physical and mental side effects from deployment.

While some governmental programs slowly grind into motion to help place vets in profitable long term employment, local communities face the struggle of helping their vets find solid footing in the civilian world. Enter Zach Beer, the Veteran Internship Coordinator for Stevens County. Zach, under the direction of the Washington State Office of Veteran’s Affairs, is working with the Spokane Conservation District to place local vets into volunteer internships in agricultural settings, outdoor recreation, forestry and other settings.

Vets on the Farm is a program that was started when the director of the Spokane County Conservation Distric, Vicki Carter, began to realize that local farmers were quite literally a dying breed. The mother of an Iraq vet, Vicki saw an opportunity to not only train the next generation of growers in the area, but also find a place to plug in returning vets to the community. The idea behind the program is to take vets and teach them the skills necessary to become the next generation of American farmers and agricultural business owners. This is achieved by matching vets and farmers or loggers together into mentorship-internship roles. The goal is to give vets the skills they need to run a successful farm or other agriculturally based business and become mentors themselves, turning back to help the next generation of vets and farmers

Similar in concept to Vets of the Farm, the Veterans Conservation Corp was founded by a veteran of the Vietnam war after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. With the remaining time he had left, he began to volunteer on a farm, reconnecting with the land, and ultimately, prolonging his life by many years. “His thought process was that if he was going to die, he might as well give,” explains Beer. “And when you get your hands in the dirt, magical things happen.” Connecting vets to the land and the great outdoors is a form of eco-therapy that has demonstrated great results in the lives of vets dealing with PTSD and other illnesses.

A volunteer and professional wildland firefighter, Zach began to make connections with vets in the area when he started working with a Firewise Community Education program. Zach approached the Stevens County Conservation District about starting a Vets on the Farm branch in Stevens County, and they were on board immediately. Vets on the Farm works like a “match.com between vets and farmers” or land managers, Beer explains, matching interests and personalities for the maximum benefit on both sides.

Vets on the Farm meets on the first Thursday of every month at 2:00 PM at the Stevens County Conservation District 232 Williams lake rd. in Colville. For more information, contact Zach Beer at 509-685-0937 extension 118 or zbeer@co.stevens.wa.us. http://www.sccd.org/programs/vets-on-the-farms https://www.facebook.com/VeteransConservationCorps/