ISSUED

Ron Capps spent 25 years in the Army, half active duty, half reserve. After leaving the military in 2008, he struggled with his mental health, suffering from PTSD and suicidal ideations. His attempts at therapy, medication, and even alcohol weren’t helping–nothing helped until he found writing. As Capps likes to say, “I wrote myself home.” After discovering the therapeutic benefits of writing, also known as Narrative Medicine, he earned an MFA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and founded The Veteran’s Writing Project, a not-for-profit offering free writing workshops for veterans and their families.

What or who inspired you to serve, why?

Military service is just something my family did. Both of my grandfather’s fought in WWI, and all of my uncles fought in WWII. My dad was too young for WWII, but he was in Korea and Vietnam. All of my cousins served during the Vietnam War, most of them in Vietnam. I was too young for Vietnam but served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What inspired you to start your nonprofit the Veteran’s Writing Project and when did you conceive the idea?

I was in grad school at John Hopkins. It struck me one evening coming home that I was using my GI Bill benefits, which translates to a lot of taxpayer money for something sort of frivolous (a graduate writing degree). So I thought I should think of a way to pay that back. By the next morning, I had the idea to give it all away. So, I founded the Veterans Writing Project, recruited a few veteran writer friends and we’ve been giving no-cost writing workshops to veterans and family members ever since.

How does your service influence the work you’re doing?

That’s an interesting question. In one way, my service taught me the importance of service—of serving others. In another way, for most of my career I was an intelligence case officer, and the product of my work was often a written report about what I did or what one of my agents found out about something, so being a competent writer in the service drove me into creative writing after I retired.

What kind of impact do you think or hope your work is achieving?

Well, I hope and think we’re having a very positive effect on the individual veterans and family members who come through our workshops, and on the communities we work in. I know we are in some cases. One example: In a North Carolina workshop a veteran came in and sat at the back. He didn’t say a word for the first day of the workshop. About halfway through the second day he spoke up and told us all a story. By the time he was finished, he was crying, I was crying, everybody in the room was crying. His wife had accompanied him to the workshop and, once he was done, she said, “I’ve been married to him for 30 years and I’ve never heard any of that.” So, in at least one case, we’ve helped a veteran open up about the pain he’s been in since Vietnam. 

What is a difficulty you face with the work you do?

Oh, man, there are so many challenges to this work. Early on, say 2011-2014 or so, we were incredibly busy. We were teaching workshops twice a month and traveling all around the USA to do so. We’ve worked in 26 different states and had more than 3600 people come through our workshops. Recently, there has been a decline in the number of workshops we’re invited to present. So, honestly, keeping seats filled is a big problem. We’re still willing and able to travel to put on these workshops, but the donor and sponsor interest and funding seems to be shrinking.

What inspires you to keep doing the work you do?

Giving other veterans and their family members the skills and confidence to tell their own stories. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it every single time.