Not all wounds of war can be seen. Some battle scars run much, much deeper.

“It’s not fully understood or appreciated by folks, but when you’ve been in some serious situations in combat, it’s not just something that affects your mind, or your physical being — it affects your soul. It’s soul-deep,” says Gary LaGrange. Healing those wounds is his mission and that of the program he founded, Valor Honey.

LaGrange, a U.S. Army colonel, may be retired from a 30-year career, but this Vietnam veteran and former garrison commander at Fort Riley, Kan., has made it his personal mission to assist returning servicemembers in transitioning back to civilian life and healing those wounds.

BEEKEEPING TRAINING: Gary LaGrange holds a frame from one of the beehives at the Kansas State University Agronomy Farm north of the Manhattan campus. Valor Honey has a cooperative arrangement with K-State to train clients in beekeeping.

And he’s using honeybees to help.

Valor Honey's mission

LaGrange, who prefers folks “just call me Gary,” says that post-9/11, the U.S. has more than 1.5 million veterans; and according to the Department of Commerce, more than 40% of veterans interviewed wanted to get into some sort of agricultural career after the military. Considering that the number of farmers continues to decline, it makes sense to help them find their agricultural specialty. And beekeeping is one entry point that is affordable and takes a small land footprint.

Back in 2012, LaGrange’s daughter shared with him another benefit to helping veterans find their farming calling. As a clinical psychologist specializing in brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, she was working at Fort Riley with clients using farming and gardening projects as therapy. And she was seeing remarkable results in her clients. This led LaGrange to develop a pilot program to train veterans and those transitioning out of the military in beekeeping.

“That first year, we started with about 24 beehives and eight soldiers from Fort Riley and six veterans as a trial,” LaGrange says. All of them had PTSD. And the outcome was so significant, LaGrange says, the program started to grow into today’s Valor Honey, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity that trains veterans, active-duty members and military family members in beekeeping as not only a career path, but also a way to heal.

BENEFICIAL BUZZ: A Valor Honey beehive is abuzz with bees. These bees help returning veterans heal their mental health wounds.

Today, Valor Honey has about 250 beehives and a packing facility at its farm just south of Manhattan, and a teaching space at the Kansas State University Agronomy Education Center on the agronomy farm north of campus — with hives as well. Honey with the Valor Honey label can be purchased online or at area retail outlets, including 385 Hy-Vee grocery stores, with 100% of the sales going back to Valor Honey’s educational efforts. The program relies solely on monetary or in-kind donations, as well as the honey sales. The honey is also sold online at the valorhoney.org website.

Training

There are three different entry points for clients or students to come to Valor Honey, LaGrange says.

First, the organization works with counselors at Fort Riley’s Soldier Recovery Unit at Irwin Army Hospital to recommend soldiers to Valor Honey who are healing or working to transition to civilian life.

Some seek the program for career education, others are looking for it as a form of therapy, LaGrange says. “We tailor a program to them,” he says. “Some will go back to their units, some will medically retire — so we tailor their program to what they need.”

Other veterans and active-duty members will come to Valor Honey on their own, he says. The program does not charge clients or students for the service, he adds, but they are expected to volunteer in beekeeping internships with Valor Honey.

HELPING OTHERS: Gary LaGrange (left) and Iudrees Khalim say the Valor Honey program is helping. In January 2024, Valor Honey was awarded a grant to train 15 Afghan Allies who were settled in the Manhattan, Kan., area. Khalim, a native of Afghanistan, worked with U.S. armed forces for many years during American missions in Afghanistan, and is an Afghan Ally who has found a home in the U.S.

The third route is through a new entomology course offered at Kansas State University, ENTOM 485 “Special Topics: Intro to Beekeeping,” co-taught by LaGrange and Brian McCornack, head of the Department of Entomology. This fully accredited course at K-State was first taught in the spring semester of 2024, and it qualifies for VA vocational rehabilitation benefits and GI Bill funds. The university plans to add an advanced course, a commercial course and a research-focused Masters of Beekeeping course in the future, LaGrange says.

Therapeutic buzz

The research into beekeeping’s therapeutic powers is ongoing, LaGrange says. But the anecdotal evidence of its power is overwhelming. After three months of working with the bees through Valor Honey’s training, LaGrange says clients or students have fewer suicidal ideations, fewer outbursts and fewer incarcerations.

“The thoughts [of suicide] go away,” he says. “We get that feedback from counselors, from the individuals themselves and from our own observations. They’re able to reintegrate into society and return to their families and become productive citizens. And they’re happy.”

There’s an overwhelming need for mental health interventions like the Valor Honey project. LaGrange says there is a conservative estimate that 35% of all veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will return home with some behavioral condition. And it affects not just those who served in U.S. armed forces, but their allies on the ground as well.

This year, Valor Honey received a grant to train 15 Afghan Allies — former Afghanistan contractors who served alongside U.S. troops and who’ve resettled in the Manhattan area. Some, like Iudrees Khalim, have experience keeping bees in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Khalim worked in the legal field for the international forces and U.S. Army in Afghanistan. His family is one of many who had to leave their home country and resettle in the U.S. for their safety.

BEE ROYALTY: The cooperative arrangement with K-State benefits the bees and farmers alike. Hives like this one are located at the university’s agronomy farm, providing pollination to research projects. And K-State is gathering interest for its expanded beekeeping course study.

Khalim works with LaGrange to translate beekeeping lessons to his fellow refugees, and says that beekeeping as a form of farming is first an avenue for financial security for their families. But it also provides them comfort.

“We’re still under a transition period, with lots of ups and downs in our lives,” he says. “We didn’t just wake up in the morning and decide to come to the U.S.” The turmoil of resettling was tough on him and his family — but the bees, he says, provide peace.

“When we work with the bees, we get a kind of internal peace, because we are working with nature,” he says.

LaGrange says it’s the calm and methodical nature of beekeeping that helps. The ability to have a career that provides for a family is another benefit. But also, for veterans who’ve been through the chaos and trauma of battle, beekeeping is an act of creation, not destruction.

“You’re working with something that’s producing life, and a product at the end,” he says. And that heals all the way to the soul.

The 988 Lifeline provides free and confidential support for people in distress, as well as suicide prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones. For veterans, dial 988 and press 1.

Education and research support

There is a need for more education and research for beekeepers, LaGrange says. In the near future, Valor Honey, in cooperation with K-State and the American Honey Producers Association, will create the American Beekeeping and Honey Institute in Manhattan, featuring training, research, certification and communication about honey and beekeeping.

There is support for this effort at both the local and federal levels.

On May 22, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, introduced the Colonel Gary LaGrange AgVets Act of 2024. This act would codify and expand the pilot Food and Agriculture Resilience Program for Military Veterans (the AgVets Program) that was in the FY2017 Agriculture Appropriations Act.

The AgVets Program has awarded project grants in more than 30 states and the District of Columbia since 2018, offering thousands of transitioning veterans opportunities in agriculture.

The LaGrange AgVets Act of 2024 would build on the pilot by: