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Try radiant defense12/24/2023 ![]() Around 20 veterans are enrolled in the programs at one time.Įlliott finds veterans through word of mouth and through presentations VFNC gives at Fort Braggs for exiting service members who are interested in transitional training. Two programs are six months and one is four months. It has three hands-on programs which educate veterans in the how-to’s of farming, which include both organic vegetables and livestock production as well as history, theory, and agricultural concepts. North Carolina has an aging farming population and a military servicemember and veteran population of 666,000, making Fayetteville, North Carolina the perfect location for VFNC to train a new generation of veteran farm entrepreneurs. His mission? “Giving veterans a new mission and America a new farmer.” A Unique EducationĮlliott describes the whole operation as “a boot camp for farming.” Now, Elliott uses farming to give hope to other veterans through VFNC. “It just kind of dawned on me one day: Maybe I should try farming and see what I can do with it,” Elliott said. One in particular, named Adele, would regularly jump into his lap or try to steal food from his hands. His girlfriend at the time had recently purchased some yard chickens. He was “pretty miserable” and contemplating dark thoughts. ![]() ![]() “Nothing was working out for me really well at all,” he said. One day, Elliott was on the farm attempting to study for a final exam (he was attending college at the time) but was not in a healthy state of mind. One ended his life the day after his retirement party. “A lot of suicides in the veteran community happen during transition from military back to civilian life, typically around the nine-month mark because we’re disconnected from our support network pretty much overnight.”Įlliott has lost eight brothers he served with in the Marines-six to suicide. “That’s what I refer to as my transitional-suicide time,” he explained. “Out of pure necessity, I didn’t have much of a choice but to move back home to the farm,” Elliott said. It was 2011, and he had a hard time finding replacement work. That came to an end with contractor cuts from the Department of Defense. “I got to stick around my military unit for 15 years total,” he said. He then worked as a civilian contractor to the military in North Carolina, where he had been stationed for his last post. He was inducted after graduation.Įlliott served for five years, making the rank of E4 corporal. Not wanting to live the life of a poor farmer, Elliott joined the Marines’ Delayed Entry Program at age 17, while still in high school. “The truth of the matter is farmers struggle way more than they thrive.” “Growing up, we seemed to always be broke,” Elliot said. Beginningsīorn in 1979, Elliott grew up on his aunt and uncle’s farm in North Carolina, where he learned both farming and ranching from an early age. After realizing what a lifesaver farming was for his transition back to civilian life, Elliott started the Veteran’s Farm of North Carolina (VFNC), where he provides agricultural programs for other veterans who are currently in the position he once was. It certainly was to Elliott-until he found a way to regain all three.īut he didn’t stop there. The lack of purpose, structure, and a support network can be devastating to veterans. This problem isn’t unique to Elliott or to the Marines specifically, but is common to many veterans who have recently made the transition from military service back to civilian life. “One of the bigger problems I had was I no longer had a purpose, because in the Marine Corps, you are built up to have a pretty big ego,” Robert Elliott told The Epoch Times.
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