“I was wounded by the things I saw and the things I was forced to do to survive, to come home to my wife and child.”
Seven years after serving overseas in the U.S. military, Jon Kristjanson found himself home in Montana, trying to be a good husband and father while fighting the ugly fangs of post traumatic stress disorder.
Plagued by PTSD and other physical injuries from war, Kristjanson struggled with regret, rage and guilt.
Around this time, in 2011, he was introduced to the Montana Wounded Warriors, a nonprofit organization devoted to taking veterans in the outdoors for hunting and fishing trips with current and former servicemen and women.
Kristjanson had never seriously hunted before but overcame his anxiety and signed up for a hunting excursion near Fort Peck. Over the next four days, he and other veterans, with the help of a guide, enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. Kristjanson harvested his first deer. He also bonded with the group and felt at ease over those days.
“We laughed a lot during this hunt as we felt more and more comfortable with each other,” he said, adding, “I felt at home in this environment.”
Kristjanson came away from the trip with lasting memories and friendships. And a reminder that he still looks at today.
“When I feel down or feel the weight of the world on my shoulders I know that I can look at the deer mount and see that I can overcome my horrors of war and that I can live life to the fullest to honor my fallen friends,” he said. “That I can define my life by my actions now and not allow my injuries nor my PTSD define who I am.”
This is the mission of Montana Wounded Warriors organization.
Founded in 2011 in Columbia Falls, the organization is solely devoted to helping Montana veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of Sept. 11. 2001. Jesse Mann, a financial advisor in Columbia Falls who has served in the military the past 16 years, including in Iraq, co-founded the organization with Neil Baumann, a fellow Columbia Falls resident whose calling was to “serve those who served.”
Not to be confused with the Wounded Warrior Project, a nationwide veterans charity based in Florida, the Montana Wounded Warriors organization is wholly unique in that it specifically supports in-state veterans by taking them on all-expense paid outdoor trips. The organization is supported by donations from across the state. An eight member all-volunteer board without any paid staff runs the group. This allows the organization to maximize its funds for the main purpose: helping men and women who served their country find fellowship and healing in Montana’s great outdoors.
“We have seen over the years just an incredible response and the camaraderie that’s immediately created and then at the same time the healing that really does take place,” said Mann, who is a Major in the U.S. Army. “Everybody’s war is a little bit different. What I experienced in Iraq is different than what they experienced. And when they’re sitting down in front of a counselor or a psychiatrist, it’s not quite the same as if they were out on an amazing hunting trip or sitting around a campfire with other veterans.”
Since 2011, the organization has taken over 40 different wounded veterans on hunting and fishing trips. The opportunities are expanding with whitewater floating trips planned for this summer.
To be eligible for a trip, a veteran must receive at least a 30 percent disability rating from Veteran Affairs, be a resident of Montana and have been injured in combat service.
“Sometimes what people see over there and what they experience is not something you can come home and talk about with your wife or kids or parents,” said Mann. “It makes it a whole lot easier to talk to somebody else who has experienced the same thing.”
The trips, which can be daily or multi-day adventures, offer veterans an opportunity to learn how to hunt and fish, similar to Kristjanson’s. It also develops a network among veterans, building new friendships that extend beyond the trips.
There are over 94,000 veterans living in Montana, one of the highest per capita rates in the country. Ten percent of Montana’s veteran population, or roughly 9,400, are between 20 and 34 years old, according to the VA. Roughly one in five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are diagnosed with PTSD. Veterans account for 20 percent of U.S. suicides.
“We have to do something. We can’t just sit back and say, ‘It’s too bad. It’s too bad he couldn’t deal with it or she felt like there was no other option,’” said Baumann.
Thanks to the support of donors across the state, the Montana Wounded Warriors organization continues its mission and hopes to keep expanding the number of year-round trips.
“The military has always been held in high regard in this state,” Baumann said. “The wounded veterans who have sacrificed for our freedom and our state and our country will always be well respected and well cared for as long as we have anything to do with it.”
For more information or to support the organization, visit montanawoundedwarriors.org.