/// HEALTH & WELLNESS
Tactical retreat Arizona town of 400 takes cause to Capitol Hill, wins
No, you’re going to give it to us — to the veterans.” Congressman Crane served 13 years and was deployed five times as a Navy SEAL in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He told American Veterans Magazine he was honored to play a part in bringing the retreat to fruition when he introduced H.R.1829 last year. “A lot of veterans get so used to helping other people that they’re not good at asking for help when they need it,” Crane said. “Centers like these meet veterans where they are and foster essential rehabilitation. I’m proud that northern Arizona now hosts one of these life-sustaining facilities.” Veterans and their families pay only what they can afford when visiting the retreat. They are not required to pay at all, because, as Campbell said, “veterans paid enough already.” State Rep. Marshall, an Air Force veteran and pastor, authored the bill allocating $3 million of the state budget to renovate the property and pay for onsite services. “One of the joys of my life occurs when I am uniquely placed in positions where unusual opportunities are provided to improve the lives of others,” said Marshall, who called the retreat “a beautiful, quiet and peaceful location … to help veterans who suffer from PTSD.” His bill passed the state legislature with bipartisan support and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs included it in the state budget, even after Gila County lost much of its special project funding last year amid a $1 billion state deficit. “I can sit here and tell you how cool it is and how pretty it is,” said Campbell of the retreat at which he is a board member and teacher. “But it’s one of those things you can’t truly appreciate until you’re standing there.”
BY ELIAS WEISS
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A lot of veterans get so used to helping other people that they’re not good at asking for help when they need it.
Left: The only surviving photograph from Campbell's Desert Storm deployment. Above, right: Lodging at the Pleasant Valley veterans Retreat in the rural Gila County community of Young.
from metro Phoenix and northern Arizona. The vision is a place where veterans and their families can heal from trauma and suicidal ideation, let go of anger and find meaning in civilian life. “PTSD is a spiritual problem,” Campbell said. “It can’t be solved with medication.” Campbell and the retreat’s other visionaries swap psychiatrists for chaplains, yogis, meditation instructors and — most importantly, he says — other veterans grappling with the same demons. “We feel like we’re alone. Nobody understands our crazy thinking after watching people die in combat,” he said. “We need help. We need each other.” The property features three sets of 10- room barracks, a pair of three-bedroom homes, a dozen RV hookups, teepees, campsites, manmade lakes stocked for catch-and-release, conference rooms, communal kitchens and a gaming room — with wi-fi throughout. WHEELS OF GOVERNMENT GRIND SLOW BUT FINE The project started seven years ago when the U.S. Forest Service announced its coffers couldn’t buoy up the ranger station anymore and the bulldozers were rolling in. Gila County Supervisor Woody Cline stepped in and said, “Let’s work something out,” he recalled in a recent interview.
What followed was a vanishingly rare yet heartening example of all levels of government coming together to solve an urgent problem. It went like this: • At Cline’s request, U.S. Forest Service gives Gila County a special use permit for the acreage valid until 2041. • U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) pitches Cline the idea of a veterans’ retreat. Cline, who did not serve but comes from a red-blooded military family, sees this as his chance to give back. • State Rep. David Marshall (R-Snowflake), a veteran and member of the Arizona House Committee on Military Affairs & Public Safety, secures $3 million from the state’s general fund to construct amenities and get the site ready to open to the public. • U.S. Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), both veterans, author legislation in Congress to convey the land from the federal government to the county under the stipulation it can only be used for veterans. Thanks to this legislation, which was packaged on the floor and passed in a final vote, Gila County no longer had to buy the land from the U.S. Forest Service as originally proposed. “Taxpayers built this site,” Cline said. “Why would the county want to buy something the taxpayers already paid for?
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U.S. REP. ELI CRANE
R ETIRED ARMY PVT. CAMPBELL NEVER EXPECTED it to turn out this way. But today, “retreat” is an everyday word for the Chandler resident and triple Bronze Star recipient. Here’s a man involved in more public service projects than one could feasibly cram into a single magazine article. But likely his biggest undertaking is a sprawling mental health retreat for veterans in Young, an unspoiled countryside community of 500 near Payson. Pleasant Valley Veterans Retreat is a 300-acre oasis of rolling, grass-blanketed hills enveloped by the Mazatzal Mountains in the heart of the world’s largest ponderosa pine forest. The retreat was a decommissioned forest service ranger station that, like Campbell, was brought back from the brink of death to develop into something great. OVERMEDICATED AND UNDER-MEDITATED People from Arizona have fought in every American war since the Civil War. Yet for more than a century and a half, there was no postwar retreat for veterans in the state. Not until 2017, when a PTSD recovery ranch called Boulder Crest opened in Sonoita, 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in the state’s southernmost county of Santa Cruz. Pleasant Valley Veterans Retreat opened last year at nearly triple the acreage and is the first retreat convenient for veterans
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Let’s work something out.
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IF YOU GO... Planning a trip to the Pleasant Valley Veterans Retreat? For accommodation availability, call 928-462-0092 or email CMelvin@GilaCountyAZ.gov.
From metro Phoenix, take the Beeline Highway to Payson and turn right onto Route 260. After 30 miles, turn right onto Young Highway for 25 miles until you reach Ranger Station Road. Follow to the end. The drive is two-and-a-half
hours from Loop 202 or Shea Boulevard. If you’re a civilian or veteran interested in helping the project, join retreat staff Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Hope on the Horizon Gala at Majestic Rim Retirement Living for
gourmet food, speakers, a silent auction, dancing and more as they raise money for the retreat. Only 100 tickets will be sold for this special night. Tickets can be purchased at Majestic Rim starting July 15.
WOODY CLINE. GILA COUNTY SUPERVISOR
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AMERICAN VETERANS Summer 2024
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