News

Ukraine visitors get first-hand look at U.S. veterans services

A delegation from Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, visited Veterans Healing Farm last Wednesday to hear about its mission and services. Speaking at the veterans farm in Horse Shoe were (clockwise from upper left) Alan Yeck, the executive director; Juliy Morozov, a civic leader from Kryvyi Ri; Anna Iemelianova, director of the Union of Responsible Citizens; and Yevheniia Zhuraver, a psychologist. [BILL MOSS/Hendersonville Lightning]

By Bill Moss, Published: April 17, 2024

On a visit to Ukraine in December, John and Donna Culp perceived a sense of urgency local people felt about helping soldiers returning home from war.

“Since the onset of the invasion from Russia, they recognize there’s a tremendous need for rehabilitation centers to meet the need,” Donna said in describing what she learned in her trips to Kryvyi Rih, an iron mining city of 600,000 people 48 miles from the front lines. “They invited me over to learn about their programs, and what they wanted to know was what Americans do for their veterans. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s more than I can tell you in two hours. Why don’t you come over and visit?’"

Donna, a retired Air Force captain, and John, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and bomb disposal specialist, made it happen. Donna has spent around three months in Ukraine and John has volunteered his service there for six months since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

An occupational therapist in and out of the service, Donna knows a lot about veterans programs. As the immediate past president of the Western North Carolina chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, she had plenty of contacts, a reserve tank of determination and a fair amount of pull. If the delegation of three from Ukraine wanted to drink from a veterans’ services fire hose, a fire hose they would get.

In a 10-day whirlwind, the visitors spent a day each at the Charles George V.A. Medical Center in Asheville and the Richmond Polytrauma Center Rehabilitation Center in Virginia, met with veterans at American Legion Post 70 in Asheville, enjoyed a reception at the Culps’ church in Waynesville and learned about “Brothers and Sisters Like These,” a therapeutic veterans writing group.

Retired military officers Donna Culp and her husband, John, organized a 10-day tour of veterans services.Although mountains-to-sea mission was 90 percent work, the Culps squeezed in a side trip to Clingman’s Dome, a brief visit to the Biltmore Estate and a drive out to Virginia Beach so they could drip their toes into the Atlantic. (They have the Black Sea but no ocean.)

‘Family plays a big part’ in veterans’ healing

Last Wednesday, the delegation spent the afternoon at Veterans Healing Farm in Horse Shoe, where they heard about programs treating veterans through peer-support, workshops and gardening.

Al Yeck, the nonprofit’s executive director, emphasized a core value in treating veterans who suffer from PTSD.

“Our mission is to enhance the mental, emotional, physical well-being of our nation’s veterans and their families,” he said. “And I want to really emphasize that point about families, because you can have a veteran that suffers and (when) that veteran will come back into the family unit, the entire family suffers. So to just treat the veteran without addressing the family — the complexity of the issues go on, the pain goes on. Family plays a big part of the Veterans Healing Farm.”

Yeck, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is retired from the foreign service. He described the healing farm’s workshops, medicinal herb garden, beekeeping and honey production, horse-assisted therapy and organic vegetables. Farmworkers carry bushels of the fresh harvest to the V.A. hospital and Veterans Restoration Quarters in Asheville.

“All the produce we grow, we give back to the veteran community,” he said, “because what we say is our veterans have already paid for it.”

‘We just made the first step’

The delegation from Ukraine was made up of Juliy Morozov, a civic leader from Kryvyi Ri; Anna Iemelianova, director of the Union of Responsible Citizens; and Yevheniia Zhuraver, a psychologist. 

The Ukrainians know their country’s military brethren — outmanned and outgunned by the Russian army — have paid — and are paying — a heavy price every day.

“We have to help them to recover mentally and physically and in any other way,” Zhuraver said. “You did this job to work on dealing with veterans and their needs during long periods of time. But for us, we just made the first step right now. We are trying to understand how to do it.”

In Ukraine, before the delegation traveled here, Culp expressed a message of encouragement.

“You deserve the world’s support, gratitude and respect,” she said, “and they took that to heart.”

Her message for Americans, in turn, is to support Ukraine’s fighters.

“They’re the ones who are on the front lines, and on that front line, those are the souls who are standing between Putin and the rest of the world,” she said. “So I say to people, if we don’t support it, history’s not going to smile upon us in this conflict.”

‘Now they have a bridge’

The Ukrainians headed home with a fuller understanding and appreciation of America’s heart for veterans.

“The experience we had not only exceeded our expectations, but we were greeted with so much generosity and such a warm welcome,” Culp said. “It really made me proud of what we have to offer in Western North Carolina and in the two V.A. medical centers that we visited.”

“When they go back, they’re taking back a lot of knowledge, a lot of information, a lot of examples to be able to plug in and play as it applies to them,” she added. “Now they have a bridge to be able to reach back to any of these people in organizations that they have talked to, and they’re already starting to communicate with those people to ask questions or get further clarification.”