"Thinking in military terms," he told the young conscripts, some only Iraq or Afghanistan. "It is a matter of survival, uphill battle." "You have to think that everything is against you and hope to survive."
The battle in question was not the typical ground assault, but organic farming: how to identify beneficial insects, for example, or to prevent stray frogs obstructing an irrigation system. It was day 2 of a novel of boot camp for veterans and active military personnel, including the nearby Camp Pendleton Marines, who might be interested in new careers as farmers.
"In the army, grunts are the guys that get dirty, do the work and are generally minusvalorados," said Colin Archipley, a decorated Marine Corps Sergeant turned organic farmer who developed the program with his wife, Karen, after his three tours in Iraq. "I think that farmers are the same.
On his farm, called Archi Acres, the sound of crickets and communes of frogs croaking with the buzz of helicopters. The curriculum approved by the programme of assistance in transition from Camp Pendleton, includes the practice of planting and irrigation, lectures on "high-value market niches" and the production of a business plan that is evaluated by teachers of business and food professionals.
Along with boots of combat to Cowboy Boots, a new program for veterans at the University of Nebraska College of technical agriculture and agriculture scholarships to wounded soldiers, the course of six weeks being offered here is part of a nascent movement agriculture "focused on the veteran". Its goal is to bring the energy of young soldiers returning to civilian life for the ageing of the farming population of rural America. Half of all producers may withdraw within the next decade, according to the Department of agriculture.
"The military is not for the faint of heart, and agriculture is not well," said Michael O'Gorman, an organic farmer who founded the Coalition farmer veteran non-profit that supports the formation of sustainable agriculture. "There are eight times more farmers about 65 bass." There is a tremendous need of young farmers, and a great wave of young people inspired by the service coming home. "
About 45 per cent of the military comes from rural communities, compared with one-sixth of the total population, according to the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. In 2009, the Department of Agriculture began to offer loans to low-interest in his campaign to add 100,000 farmers to ranks of the country each year.
Among them is likely to be Sergeant Matt Holzmann, 33, a marine on Camp Pendleton, who spent seven months in Afghanistan. He did a job of counter-insurgency and tried to introduce aquaponics, a self-premium agricultural system, to rural villages.
His zeal for aquaponics led him to the kind of agriculture. "It is a problem of national security," said the other day was a garage-turned-classroom filled with boxes of Dr. Earth food Kelp. "More responsible that we use water and energy, more for our country".
Mr. O'Gorman, a pacifist and a pioneer of business baby lettuce, the Coalition began when his son joined the coast guard. The group recently received a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, co-founded by the journalist for ABC News who was injured in Iraq, to provide scholarships for agriculture for young veteran wounded.
"Starting the agriculture has become the cause du jour among young people with university degrees and trust funds," said Mr. O'Gorman on the farm, where there were piles of magazines news of mother earth in the bath and a lot of fresh kale in the receiver. "My gut sense is that many of them are not breeding in five years from now." "But these vets."
Mr. Archipley trip in organic farming was Serendipity. He joined the Marines in response to the terrorist attacks of 11 of September and married with between his tours of second and third parties in Iraq. The couple bought three hectares of plantations of avocado to the North of San Diego.
Mr. Archipley, which bring to mind a surfer guy, found pleasure tends his grove after leaving the Marines, and finally got a loan from the Department of agriculture to build a greenhouse. His farm now sells organic products to the markets of food in San Diego and Los Angeles.
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