(man) Hey, let's go.

Come on.

There are invisible wounds of war.

Not all wounds are on the outside and can be seen.

Those wounds are almost even the harder ones to treat.

Because those are the ones we don't want to talk about.

Service members, they do incredible things, and some of them not only have physical wounds, but they'll have mental wounds.

For me, I came back with a lot of anxiety issues.

Say wounded is something that you carry with you forever.

[drums, bass, & keyboard play fast-paced music in a minor key] [bass and keyboard play in syncopated rhythm] ♪ [calling a turkey] [loud crack!

of the rifle] ♪ ♪ (Samantha Carlson) The benefits that the veterans get out of coming to programs like Mandatory Fun Outdoors or other veterans programs-- there's a lot of therapy in the outdoors.

(Jeffrey Stine) It's so awesome to be able to come out and meet like-minded guys.

Most of us have never met each other before We get together and it's like we've known each other our entire lives.

Who was your Captain?

Ah, Eastman.

(Jeffrey Stine) We get to do all sorts of fun activities that bring us outside.

There's something about being in the woods or in a fishin' boat.

I mean, it's relaxing.

There's just something about the outdoors that is just kind of Zen.

(Samantha Carlson) Something about getting outside and away from everything else and with people who have had either similar trauma, similar experiences, things that they've been through that other people just don't understand.

When you can put them together and get 'em outdoors, outside of the bar, outside of even their family, you get 'em with people that understand because they've been there too.

They start talking, and we heal through talking.

But if you have some of those conversations on a sidebar with a like-minded person or with your buddy or whatever else; you can get it out comfortably and safely and effectively and either work through it or become okay with it or kind of open up that relation with somebody-- that just goes-- such an believable length.

Absolutely-- it's not healthy to keep it in (Justin Lightfoot) A lot of times veterans that come on the events, they're like I just didn't know if I should sign up because I don't feel like I'm deserving, or somebody is more wounded as you would say or needs help more than I do.

They're all deserving-- they all signed on the line, they all left their families-- 4 years, 20 years, 30 years whatever they signed up for-- it's still a commitment to our country for our freedom.

There's so many different ways that you can be affected by your service.

It's a hairy place place to be-- in country and young You're not, ah, as experienced as some of the older guys there.

People don't realiz when we go serve our country-- they don't know the stuff that we go through.

My knees are really bad.

I got ran over, and then ah... just seeing that stuff at age of 19... so... (Jeffrey Stine) I was lead vehicle, patrol leader, The most dangerous thing that we would encounter would be improvised explosive devices on the roads.

So we were constantly scanning and watching and trying to find them, you know, before they went off.

You're just in a high-stress environment at such a young age.

I wouldn't say I had PTSD when I got back, just different lifestyle when I got back.

I had seen some combat over there and stuff.

Biggest stresses for me were just making sure everybody went home, you know, went home whole.

Transitioning from deployments can be awfully hard.

You build up this great big thing that life is going to be amazing when you get home, and life is life when you get home.

(Jeffrey Stine) I did 16 months in Iraq, I was there for the surge, did over 400 combat patrols while I was there Every day you didn't know if you were coming back.

Transition was a struggle coming back off of that.

(Phil Krabbe) My war didn't start till I got home.

When you get out of that environment you're in a certain mindset, of everything is life and death.

And when you come back home and you're going through just your daily life, that's not the case-- everything is not black and white.

In the Army I didn't have to choose what to wear, when I was going to eat, what I was going to eat-- everything was laid out for you, and you were told what to do and what to wear.

So something as silly as picking out your clothes in the morning could actually be a struggle, and I would catch myself sittin' in the closet going-- too much to choose from-- what do I do?

We don't just get out of the military, go to the VA and get medication, and then we're fine.

There are things that we struggle with on a daily basis.

I can tell you exactly how high the rocket was pretty much by the sound of the motor, by the sound of the whistle.

I remember when I first got home there was a steamer bag of vegetables going, and it started whistling.

I hit the ground because my brain was so very well-trained that it was like that is close, that is close, that is close-- get down, get down, get us down.

And you're never the same when you come back.

There's a lot of resiliency involved, and you have to work on remembering the good times and not always just focusing on the challenges that were in front of you To be able to come out and do some of these trips and get to see and talk to other vets who have gone through it, or maybe even going through it now.

It's really beneficial.

Every time that I tell my story, I heal just a little bit more.

I'm a volunteer speaker for the Wounded Warrior Project.

I'll speak to 4 people or 400 people, whoever listened.

As long as I touch one person, it makes it worth it.

[sighs] In 2006 I was on my 3rd deployment to Iraq.

I was the Platoon Sergeant for, ah, Bravo Company First Battalion, First Marine.

We were on a patrol to resupply our 4th Platoon, and we did our resupply, and then we were going to finish out a patrol before we went back, and we turned down a road called Water Tower Road.

We took a left, as soon as we took a left down that road I knew something was wrong.

I was reaching for my radio to call an all stop, and the vehicle in front of me exploded.

I had 6 Marines in that vehicle.

My training took over, and I didn't have a chance to process that, so I compartmentalized it, I shoved it way down, and I just continued the mission because I still had 2 months of deployment left.

So that didn't hit me until I got home.

So I had survivors guilt, depression, anxiety, nightmares.

I had been blown up in Iraq, so I was having migraines.

I was dealing with a lot of things at once, and in order to deal with that I started drinking, and I started drinking heavily.

I hopped into the bottom of a bottle for 15 years.

Pretty soon alcohol does not-- it doesn't do enough.

And my nightmares were so profound, they were so vivid and real-- and I'm talking, I could smell the cordite, I could smell the diesel fuel, so me being a Marine, I thought well, I just won't go to sleep.

So I started taking amphetamines, and I would stay awake for 3 or 4 days straight.

That way I knew as soon as my head hit the pillow, I would be out.

But your body can only do that for so long before it says enough is enough.

November 30th, 2020, I was standing in my kitchen, and I'd been up for 3 days straight.

I had been drinking for just as long, and I'd just took another hit of amphetamines, and my depression kept telling me-- you can end this.

And that particular day I agreed with it, so I grabbed my .38, I loaded it, stuck the barrel in my mouth, put some pressure on the trigger, and right before I pulled the trigger 2 thoughts popped into my mind-- Number 1, I didn't want my then 7-year-old son to find me dead in my kitchen and number 2, I had made a promise to a great friend of mine Ray Passaro that I would have the courage to survive.

I would have the courage to forgive myself for the things I had done in the past, and remember the pain and sacrifice that I had been through up to that point.

And that's what saved my life that night.

We like to offer alternatives to alcohol and drugs and suicide.

We know that suicide in veterans is a-- it's just awful, So we're to combat that by offering these events that shy away from the drugs and alcohol.

Okay, load up-- turkey over here.

[loud rifle shot] Oh, I got him!

The name of our organization is Mandatory Fun Outdoors We do outdoor adventures... Well, that was excitement!

...for veterans and their family members as well as people who are actively serving.

The Gals and Gills weekend, they pair us up with a professional fisherman.

I got to fish with another veteran.

The best part was, our guide kept telling us we need to be back, we need to be back by 4.

[with emotion] When we drove in, they have the street lined with every single police car and firefighter from the surrounding counties, and they gave us what they call "The Hero's Welcome."

I never got that.

I can't even tell you the feeling that I felt or my fellow veterans as we were driving in.

Just tears-- even the hardest Marine.

Right?

Just tears coming as we drove in, and I said to myself, I need to be a part of this, this is something, the good in me, I need to be a part of this.

I started this in 2017 I was working with a couple of other veteran programs, and it was all hunting and fishing.

We were missing a lot of people, people that maybe didn't want to hunt or fish.

We'll put something out on our Facebook page saying, hey, what do you guys want to do?

And some will say well, do you guys go dogsledding?

And we say yup, then we figure out how to get them dogsledding.

That is a huge thing, we love to do that.

We bring them up here.

We've done Ely, Duluth.

We do gardening, then maybe how to can.

We try to make everything educational, and we try to set them up so when they leave us, they can continue to do what they've learned.

We pride ourselves in figuring out what will heal a veteran, what will bring camaraderie to their fellow veterans.

We have specific events that are women only.

That's why we did the Gals and Gills.

Those women feel very comfortable and safe.

That is one of our biggest things is to provide that safe environment for men and women, but we keep our Gals and Gills to just females.

Most of them have never used a fishing pole, so they learn how to fish.

These pro fishermen give them tips.

We do this little bonfire, they all sit around the bonfire, and they have that safe place to tell stories.

There's a lot of learning that goes on, but I want to say that the biggest thing is that camaraderie they feel with other women who have been where they have been.

I will never forget my training and stuff through my MTI.

She looked at us and she said you will have to work 10 times harder to be at the same level as any other male.

Whether it's respect, physical fitness-- anything.

But I'll be damned if you don't do it.

(Jessica Groves) A lot of females go through some of the similar issues-- a lot of sexual trauma.

(Christi Patrick) My stint in the military was not a good one.

I am an MST survivor.

I was originally stationed with a Marine Air Control squadron, and they needed to do some diversifying, and at that time there was a 1st LAAD, 2nd LAAD, and 3rd LAAD-- no women were allowed in grunt units, Air Wing grunt units.

And so I became one of the very first females to ever get into an Air Wing grunt which was 1st LAAD Battalion which is Low Altitude Air Defense.

(Jessica Groves) I was stationed off Parris Island.

I went to boot camp there.

They needed more females to deal with the female recruits that were coming in.

It's tough because you're either labeled as a bitch, or you're labeled as a slut.

There's no in-between-- you don't want to be labeled as anything-- I didn't.

You go through a lot, all simply just because you're not a man.

you're battling a whole different wound.

These trips are important, especially the female trips.

The first trip I went on, there was another woman there, but she was in her 60s.

Me and her had very very similar experiences Having somebody that just knows-- you don't really have to explain much, you just know.

And it's nice to have sisterhood-- it is.

We want to do more female trips, and that's one of the bigger reasons why I joined the board was to be an advocate for the female veterans that want to do outdoor things even if they've never done it before.

(Dean DeValk) When you get out away from the city, there whatever, in your own group, it's all brotherhood.

Everybody getting' together, you know, havin' a good time, the camaraderie and the friendship of everybody.

We got 52 people out here I think right now.

We've got 12 ice castles.

(Logan Shiflett) This is our annual trip, we do this every year.

How you doing here.

Got plenty of room?

(Larry) The weather never cooperates, but yeah, it's a fun trip.

Some of these guys haven't seen each other for 10 years or more, they get to meet up again which is great.

Some guys, they've never met each other in their lives and within a half hour it's like they've been best friends their whole life.

It's what keeps me grounded.

It's great to swap stories with all the guys, find out where they were at, what their experiences were how they combated issues coming home as well, just generally make new friends that were in the military with you.

(Logan Shiflett) It does take a lot of work to do, to organize it all.

We have a lot of veterans that apply for these trips.

Like this trip alone was probably 65 applications (Jeffrey Stine) They put out a message on Facebook, on their site saying they've got an upcoming trip, and you just put your name in and see if you get lucky enough for them to draw your name for a trip.

(Logan Shiflett) My very first trip I did I raised enough money to take 2 veterans out on a snow goose trip in South Dakota, that's kind of where it started, then after that developed a board.

We go snow goose hunting in South Dakota, Missouri, we go down to Texas, pig hunting, Montana, prairie dog hunting, tons of fishing trips to Red Lake, Lake of the woods, Lake Michigan-- we're kind of all over the place.

We're an all volunteer board, we're all vets, there's 9 of us.

We just use our free time, we use our own personal vehicles for all this kind of stuff, no pay-- 100% volunteer.

I just love helping other people, especially other veterans, that I know have probably had some other issues going on in their life.

This is a way to get away from society and just be with a group of people you know you can trust 100%.

(Andy Graff) I am a Navy veteran and a law enforcement officer.

Before 2017 there was a group of us veterans, we wanted to find a way to give back to a very unique community which was the military community, and then we added law enforcement, EMS and fire as well because obviously jobs are different but a lot of the traumatic stuff we experience together.

It's just really awesome to give a chance to give back to those guys for doing all they did for our country and for their communities and for what they still do today.

It's really important for us to make sure they feel heard and to find healing.

That's what's really big about Hometown Hero Outdoors is the healing aspect.

We call it a form of outdoor recreational therapy.

Doing trips like this out here, Moorhead, Minnesota today chasin' some geese-- this is where I get the center myself, to heal and come back to feeling good.

(Jake Freidrichs) What Hometown Heroes do for local veterans and LEO and everybody-- they're an amazing organization.

Bringing everyone together and building this bond, and you can vent and people that can relate with you too.

What's really cool about our group, guys like me that hunt and fish all the time-- I have all the gear.

I can grab somebody and say hey, come with me, let me show you how I heal, let me show you my passion There's like a 4-pack coming right at us right here.

See those?

(2nd man) Oh, yeah, they are comin' right at us.

There's a lot of people on the Hometown Hero's Facebook page that will just take you out.

It doesn't have to be for one of their special events or whatever else.

It's a really welcoming group of people and a really welcoming community.

Everybody is super willing to share their knowledge and information and teach and help you experience it so you can start doing it yourself.

By doing that we've been able to help literally thousands since 2017, help people experiencing a day in the woods, on the water.

We also do barbecue trips, horseback rides, ATV rides-- a lot of unique opportunities to give back and for them to have opportunities to heal.

We have a private group page which is on Facebook.

People sign up, and I do a random selection Decided to throw my name in the hat for a few of them, and I was fortunate enough to be picked for this one.

I haven't killed anything yet but I expect that to pick up here before too terribly long, I hope.

We met up this morning at 6 a.m. We got out to the field, met with the guys, they had everything waitin' for us.

They served us a hot breakfast right in the blind.

They just got to walk out to the blind, sit down and wait for the birds.

So it's a really easy fun opportunity for them to just relax in the outdoors.

Just sitting and talking with everybody, sharing stories and bonding, I made friends today.

I didn't expect that, and it just built my support group even more.

(Andy Graff) One of our founding members, he went to Iraq, and he saw, smelled, and did things that are very traumatic.

And even though his wife and his whole home front and his friends are great supporters, he gets in a boat with a guy that had the same sand in his boots, the same smells in his nose-- they can connect on a level higher than anyone else can offer.

And for him and I know for others, that's a part of healing.

And they laugh about stuff and they get a chance to kind of put themselves back together because some of those guys go over there whole and come back broken.

(Nick Kuefler) Probably about halfway through our 10-month deployment, I slipped on some shale rock as we were working our way up a mountain side.

I fell-- between falling and rolling down the mountain about a quarter mile.

And when I got to the bottom I was unconscious.

Both my shoulders were dislocated, my left hip was out, my jaw was out of place.

I was all banged up, and by the time they got to me, I was kind of coming to.

My medic popped all my stuff back in, put my nose back in place, my jaw, both my arms and my hip.

And then trekked on the next couple of days instead of getting medevaced out.

As a result of that I ended up having some more permanent injuries that I kind of deal with day to day.

I got three baby!

Let's go!

(Andy Graff) We're an all volunteer staff.

We have a board, we're active in over 30 states and we do all fundraising.

We do a national raffle, we do banquets.

We get donations from VFW, from Legion.

People sometimes, oh, I want to donate-- it's only $20.

I said well, on a typical trip $20 can go a long way A lot of us when I host a trip myself, it's all my equipment.

Nothing is paid for, my time I said I donate, so then hey, that covers breakfast for the day.

Awesome.

That's a big one, pass that one down.

(Andy Graff) So even small donations go a long way with us, and that's what's really important.

When your dollars get donated in the state, we want that to stay, because again, this is helping those in these small communities.

15 minutes left of shooting late, and we smacked down 9 geese-- cloud 9 right now-- awesome!

I don't know what it is about Minnesota but when you get a lot of small towns all put together, they could do amazing things, they really can.

We get a lot of our donations though the small towns.

(Justin Lightfoot) The organization was started in 2009 by Brian Ophus up in Bemidji.

What he did is, he just started taking some of his people in his platoon that got hurt, hunting, and then people started donating, and he had this idea.

There were some other organizations, and so he created Wounded Warriors Guide Service.

It was created just as a Minnesota organization, and now we have board members across the U.S.

When we have an event come up, you can put your name in, then we have a lottery to pick who goes on these events.

This summer we had an Alaskan trip, a trip of a lifetime for 4 veterans.

We had about 150 applications.

It's very hard to pick 4 veterans because they're all deserving.

(man) Beautiful!

The Wounded Warriors Guide Service, the mission really is camaraderie and therapy through the outdoors.

(Justin Lightfoot) Kind of called recreational therapy.

We do hog hunts, we do paddlefish trips, we have Missouri duck hunt, Turkey hunt-- we just have all kinds of stuff going on.

We are 100% volunteer organization.

All the funding we raise and get donated goes to the veterans.

You're down and set ma'am.

(Justin Lightfoot) So these events are free for veterans.

They just have to get to a rendezvous point, then everything is covered from license to food, shells, ammunition, guide fees-- all that is covered for a veteran.

So when you get selected for an event, I mean it's free for you.

We have fish houses free for veterans to use.

You can bring your families out, you can come out by yourself, come out and camp for the weekend, the week, whatever the schedule allows.

We promote it on our Facebook page.

Anybody that is a veteran can call me.

I have a schedule that I know when they're coming so that I can get them out on the ice.

There's usually more than 15 inches of ice out there, so they can take their own car out there and park next to the house.

It's nice to see people taking advantage of it.

I know a lot of veterans that don't want to-- they don't want to take the spot of somebody else that they feel might really need it.

But they all deserve it; they all need it.

It's a great opportunity for people to get on the ice.

People I've met that have never touched ice in their life, they're all equipped with fishing poles, tackle-- Whatever the veterans need out here I help facilitate it.

Whether it's helping reel in fish or setting hooks or just transporting, making sure everybody is fed, making sure everybody is happy and they're having a good time.

[joyful laughter] (Justin Lightfoot) When you get people that don't know each other from different branches of service.

People are kind of quiet at first, then they start to speak up.

On day 2 they start to open up about their service.

You and I could've been on the same deployment, been side to side every single day, went through everything together-- but we are both going to come out of it different.

(woman) Yes.

There's always a night where people will tell the hard stories.

And there will be tears, and they can relate 2 seconds I had a major...

Thanks everybody.

They're already bonding.

It's hilarious, I love it!

That's my favorite part is listening to them all chattering, talking to each other about all their experiences, what they did, where they went-- that's my favorite part.

(Justin Lightfoot) It's things like that why I've been part of this organization for 11 years.

I remember about year 3 or 4, I had a Vietnam veteran.

On the 3rd night he came down, and he was really quiet at breakfast, I'm like, what's wrong, did you not sleep good?

He's like, because this is the first night that I have slept through the night since I got back from Vietnam because I felt safe and secure with new brothers.

Veterans at the end of these trips will tell how thankful and grateful they are for what we do because it means a lot, and we've created a lot of connections and met a lot of great people doing this.

Hey!

Look at 'em go!

If you can take the best out of a trip.

You'll have a trip of a lifetime every time.

[piano & orchestra play] (woman) Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008 and by the members of Prairie Public.