Swords to plowshares: New program promotes farming for veterans
When Joseph Fields deployed to Iraq for the third time with the Kentucky Army National Guard in 2008, he and his wife, Heather, had big plans for their recently purchased 7-acre farm just outside Berea.
To support his family, Fred-Curtis Lewis has returned to Fort Bragg, N.C., teaching his hard-won skills to new Special Forces medics. But he wants to get back to farming full-time.
"In the military, our whole entire life is service -- service to our country, to our brothers in arms, to our families," Fred-Curtis Lewis said. "Take a guy like me: I served 14 years. It was my whole life. I got injured, became a civilian not by choice but because I couldn't do the job any more. But I didn't want to do any other job."
And, Lewis said, it is very hard to find anything in civilian life that fulfills that need to serve.
"You start to farm and you realize it could benefit your family, your community, and that's extremely rewarding," Lewis said. "You're bettering your country."
