(gunshot blaring) (helicopter humming) (engine revving) - I joined when I was 18 years old.

- I went over there when I was 19.

- I was in 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.

(gunshots blaring) (bomb explodes) (dramatic music) - I don't know how to describe being scared to death.

(dramatic music) (gunshots blaring) - We come out a little mean.

There's a hostility that stays with you.

(dramatic music) (gunshots blaring) - Surviving sometimes is a curse.

I didn't go outside for about 2 years.

- It's been really hard for me since I got out.

(dramatic music) Good afternoon.

My name is AJ Rangel.

I'm here today to do um... (somber music) I'm here today to do.

I'm here today to introduce my.

Hello, my name is AJ Rangel.

I'm here today to present my business plan.

(dramatic music) (light music) - [Man] Be good.

(light music) - [Man] I contemplated not coming, but just gonna give it a shot.

- [Man] I'm 46 years old.

I've done everything the Marine Corps has asked of me, and now I'm leaving the Marine Corps powerless.

- [Man] You have job security, a steady paycheck, and then as soon as you're out, that's it.

(light music) - [Man] I think this is Archi's right here.

- I don't know what's waiting for me when I leave the Marine Corps.

- [Man] This is a huge opportunity to build my own future.

- [Man] If this doesn't work, what am I gonna do to provide for my family?

(upbeat music) - Archi's Acres is a first certified hydro-organic farm in America.

We're known for our basil.

We put out 1200 plants a week here.

Colin and I created a program to teach agriculture to transitioning military as well as civilians.

It's a six week course.

Our whole thing is to teach skills.

We go from concept of a business idea to presentation of a business plan.

- They'll be classes on economics, nutrition, education, soil science, food safety, water conservation.

You guys will present a business plan on Thursday of week six.

We've had students get funding from their presentation.

- [Karen] It's an opportunity to reinvent themselves completely.

- [Colin] If you don't present your plan, you can't graduate.

If we could do student intros.

- My name is Chad Armstrong, former Marine.

- I'm Mike Morningstar, prior Air Force.

- I'm an active-duty Marine, - Former Marine also.

- I was in the Air Force.

I'm getting ready to retire this year.

- I'll be retiring in the end of June after 24 years.

- My name is AJ, I'm prior Navy.

- Good morning everybody.

- [Everyone] Good morning.

- Thanks for taking the risk of setting 6 weeks of your life aside and coming out here to give this program a try.

Farms impact local communities, the economy, our natural resources and our climate.

70% of farms in Syria have failed because of climate change.

This job is difficult.

There's risk involved.

There's long days.

And there's a lot of farms out there they can't pay their bills at the end of the day.

Well, guess what?

That farm will cease to exist.

(dramatic music) - Everywhere that I've been, I've had the bike.

In Iraq, I had the bike.

Built dirt jumps and built skate parks, essentially in Iraq.

It's what really has kept me sane through all of it.

I joined the Marines straight out of high school, and they told me you're gonna see the world, you're gonna see Australia and Thailand, and you know, all these great places.

And I did two tours through Iraq.

I was the detention facility guard in Fallujah.

There were women there.

There were children there.

There were elderly there.

When people showed up, their hands were zip tied behind them.

They had blindfolds on.

Some of that just sticks with you.

And then I've been doing contract aviation maintenance ever since.

But there's only so many times you can be drenched in hydraulic fluid or jet fuel.

That stuff's terrible for your health.

I'm seeing a slew of doctors that are trying to figure out some possible auto-immune condition that I might have.

My knees, the pain gets worse to where it kind of feels like somebody's jamming a nail into the joint itself.

That's what got me into eating a plant-based diet and possibly growing my own fruits and vegetables.

Plant medicine is what will heal the body.

That's my goal.

(light music) (engine revving) - I've been in the military for just shy of 25 years.

It goes by fast.

I'm from Texas, and Texas is a patriotic state.

It means a lot to me to serve my country.

My first deployment was to Iraq.

Coming back you try to fit back into where you left off.

It's hard to sleep.

You have dreams about the blood and guts, and just things that happened on the battlefield.

This has been my only full-time job for the past 25 years, so transitioning from this is gonna be a step into the unknown, but I want a way for me to earn a living once I leave the Marine Corps.

(light music) - [AJ] The beard, the long hair, it's an easy place to hide out at.

My family didn't like it to begin with, so I haven't really got kissed for a couple years.

You get knocked down and it's hard to get up sometimes.

It's a hard word to deal with depression.

That's what has me here.

- When we started this, people thought we were crazy.

They were like veterans and farming, you know, what are you nuts?

- Veterans have a much higher rate of becoming self-employed than the general public does.

I think a lot of it has to do with the leadership training that you get in the military.

Those skills are very applicable to being an entrepreneur.

If we perceive returning veterans back home differently, it's gonna change how they transition and integrate.

Service members are made up of just everyday people.

They had a calling to join the military to serve our country or just some were good.

Simply because we take the uniform off, it doesn't mean we hung up those values.

I was very proud to be a Marine.

Leaving the military, you lost your network.

You can't relate to people at home because you've changed so much.

The economy here sucks.

We can't find a job.

So what's your purpose?

You know?

- [Karen] There was one holiday, Christmas holiday where Colin lost three dear friends to suicide.

That's when we said enough.

And so we created our class to teach agriculture.

Agriculture has always been a refuge for the war wary.

- [Colin] I mean, even that movie gladiator, right?

All he wanted to do is go back and farm his wheat fields.

You know?

- [Karen] The difference that farming makes is that the same trigger finger that they use to kill people, they're now growing stuff.

(light music) - When I found out about the school in 2011, I did some more digging, that's when I found out that it was owned by a 31 veteran.

And then I took that as like, how can I not attend the course, right?

You know?

- You would never think Jon was in the Marine Corps, that's for sure.

Me and Jon were in the same infantry unit.

We deployed to Iraq in 2004.

It was the second battle of Fallujah.

(man yells) (bomb explodes) - [News Reporter] Fallujah could be the worst combat faced by American forces since Vietnam.

- [Colin] C-130 gunships and fixed-wing and artillery are all drop ammunition on the city.

The mosque are going off basically calling from Jihad.

Every instant was explosions, some of them so big it made my eyeballs feel like trampolines.

(bomb explodes) (gunshots blaring) All this dropping in on you, and then you move into it.

- [Man] Fire!

(gunshots blaring) - That was night one.

(light music) - [Man] That's right.

- Yeah, I think that is me, man.

So I was in what's now become known as the Hell House.

(ominous music) We were pinned down in that house for a good bit of time.

Now I remember the flash, the heat and the little tiny shrapnel that hits you.

And I was thinking, "Ah, that's a grenade", and I'm still pressing the trigger.

Immediately after that is when I felt like a sledgehammer hit my thigh.

As I'm telling myself to look at it, I hear my other self say, "Don't look at, "it might put you in shock."

And the other self was saying, "Shut up bitch, just look at your leg".

You know?

(laughs) (light music) Two AK rounds to the left femur, fragmentation to left shoulder, left hip, left ankle.

It was certainly the most painful experience in my life, which I am still thankful for.

Yeah.

You know?

(light music) The growth that has come from that, I don't know that I would have had if I hadn't experienced it.

(light music) You have skills you've honed from the military and to be able to take those and re-orient them from what is essentially a destructive endeavor into a productive endeavor is a therapeutic in of itself.

(gentle upbeat music) (water pouring) - [Colin] This is just a Dutch bucket system.

It's literally a bucket inside of a bucket, so it's gonna drain into this bottom bucket.

- It's a lot more intense than what I thought it was gonna be.

I kind of knew it was gonna be a fast-paced course, but I had no idea it was gonna be as much actual class time, classwork, solenoids, pumps, irrigation, fertigation, it's just a lot of information to absorb at once, but I'm gonna make it work.

I want to buy an acre of land back in Houston and provide a healthy food choice for my local community and for my family.

(light music) - [AJ] Go, babe.

(light music) The unkept look kind of started to weigh me down.

You see yourself all gray and beat up, that type of energy, you know, it breaks you.

(light music) So I had to get rid of the beard.

I always feel like I'm coming short, just constantly playing catch up, catch up, catch up.

- Can you pass me a napkin?

- [AJ] Yes.

You know, there's not too many vacations.

There's not too many extra frills.

- Without your beard, you look younger.

(both laughing) You look like a different person.

(light music) - [AJ] Being at this farming program, I'm there to learn how to feed my family.

- Calculation to measure electricity is volts times amps equals watts.

So 30 lights times five, I'm at 150 amps.

As you install lights, your amps are gonna get eaten up real quick.

- [Dexter] The homework that I have tonight is probably gonna be about three hours, probably another three to four hours tomorrow.

There's a math assignment with a lecture quiz, farm business plan.

And then our online research project.

It just snowballs.

(light music) - The first week was just very basic algebra, and now we're starting to pick up.

The workload has pretty much doubled, almost tripled at this point, I'm starting to see what I got myself into.

Transitioning from the military back to the civilian life, they don't give you nearly enough preparation for it.

You're trained to be a Marine and think like a Marine and act like a Marine, so to transition back to this world and just tell somebody, "This is how you write a resume", that doesn't work.

- Sean has a very calm, peacefulness to him.

That's what I really appreciate about him.

- My business plan is to establish a container farm in the US Virgin islands that can provide organic produce.

Not everyone has access to healthy food, and I think that we have an obligation as people to provide that to others.

- How's your business plan going?

- Well, I'm still-- - [Man] What are you gonna be growing?

- [Dexter] Tomatoes.

- Yeah.

Regular tomatoes or heirloom or?

- I plan on moving back to Houston at the end of June.

Once we get there, I'm gonna start looking at either looking at buying land, maybe an acre and building a greenhouse.

- Why greenhouse?

Why spend the money on a greenhouse?

'Cause remember this is a business.

- Right.

(light music) - [Dexter] Growing up where I'm from there was nobody that had anything to do with agriculture.

There was no place to plant anything in the projects where I grew up in.

So it's been a discouraging thinking that "How am I gonna make this work?"

- [Woman] A what?

(Dexter's mother mumbles) - [Man] Do you think he can make a living as a farmer?

- No!

- No!

(everyone laughs) You never know.

Whose to say?

- You never know!

- Whose to say?

- No!

(women laughing) (Dexter's mother mumbles) (everyone laughs) - Just noticed you look so much younger, you know?

- I was being a bum for a couple of years.

(light music) There's no work, you know.

I get injured, you know, my back will give out and I'm just, you know, I'm down sometimes for a week.

There's a vulnerability when you can't provide for your family.

Little by little, I'm getting over that.

This class has given me that confidence.

This is a spot to the left.

There's a lot of lots around here that nothing's being done with them.

You know, they're just a place to throw your trash away.

I see a lot of profitability.

So this is one of them that I think about.

If not a community garden, just, you know, something else, let's put something here.

Let's grow something.

(light music) - Okay.

So this is your third exam.

Identify the five different media.

- These are growstones, these are leca stones and this is perlite.

- Coco Coir, growstones, perlite, leca stones.

- The growstones, the leca stones, the perlite.

- [Man] Yep.

- The rockwool, coco coir.

- [Man] Yeah.

- This is the airstone.

- There's an airstone inside as well as an airstone bladder below it.

- [Man] Here's the heater and the filter tip.

- [Man] All right.

Is it as bad as you thought it was?

- Oh yeah, it was horrible.

And she has last one.

- [Shawn] It's hard to believe that next week is the final week.

It definitely flew by a lot faster than I expected.

- I remember that pressure well.

I definitely was challenged mathematically.

I found it very challenging.

But I think Archi's Acres is a path into becoming someone else, something else, involved in something bigger and better than the combat that we may have experienced.

Being able to communicate that to other veterans that I see are maybe in a place of hurt and showing them that there is another option, that can be life-changing.

For me, that's been instrumental in having a healthier outlook.

Navy, Marine.

- Marine.

- Marine.

- Marine.

- Marine?

- [Man] Marine.

I know two Marines, one was going through a real trying time, and he happened to meet another former Marine, and he has an incredibly positive attitude.

- [Man] Yeah.

- And the other former Marine expressed to him how beneficial in getting the norm was.

It potentially prevented a suicide just knowing him.

- People are tribal, right?

We all tend to group towards people who are like us.

In general public that typically means like race or religion or economic group, politics.

But it seems like the service members and vets transcend all of those lines under the umbrella that we're all in uniform one point in time.

- What's been y'all's experience coming here as far as just the interservice camaraderie?

Peace, for instance, tell me about what that.

What was that like?

- I wanted to say I came here to be with you guys for this environment.

I could of have gone online or some other schools and learn the hydroponics, but the program here, people being ex-military, it's nice to be with people that have an idea of what you're going through and to be there.

There's strength in the people being together, and it goes a long way from me.

(light music) - [Man] The new equation we're gonna teach you today is if we take the amount of water applied in inches divided by a soil moisture depletion in inches per foot, gives us depth and feet.

Again, in the equation process we have inches and inches per foot.

The inches cancel each other out, and we're left with feet for the depth.

- All my math in college to the nail to get over the courses, remedial, a lot of tutoring hours.

Still a struggle for me, and I just need to find a way to get over it.

(light music) Having a daughter, all my focus is on her.

Read out the question, and then you put the answer, okay?

- Okay.

What are the 3 main reasons to reuse up a biofilter?

What does that say?

Digester?

- Digester.

- Digester.

- [AJ] I want to show her that this is, you know, this is doable, that this challenge isn't gonna get the better of me.

- [Man] Depth is 3 feet.

- Okay, let's do this again.

And we know soil moisture depletion is point five inches per foot.

So I'm gonna utilize the equation, three feet times point five.

- Times point five.

(dramatic music) Today's exam day, and I'm here early.

I had a rough night.

I got to my family's house at 12 at night, and I didn't want to disturb them, so I slept in the car.

- All right, so we have the final exam here.

About nine o'clock, so you guys have until 11.

(dramatic music) - [AJ] I'm just really hoping I do well.

This is it.

(dramatic music) - [Dexter] I still want to do this.

If I can make this work, you know, it's not gonna be a job for me.

It's gonna be a labor of love.

This is part of the process.

(dramatic music) - [Man] 30 minutes, guys.

(dramatic music) - I need to keep it, but if you wanted to go through it, you can.

(dramatic music) Good job.

- I'll take it.

- All right.

- Bye.

(dramatic music) - [AJ] I thought I totally riffed it.

You know, my history, fears of failure were just fucking on my shoulders too.

- AJ.

- [Man] I'm right here.

(dramatic music) - Good job.

- Ah, thank you.

Fuck yes.

It feels real good.

I'm ready to do 50 pushups, 100, at least in my mind.

(dramatic music) (water rushing) I'm presenting myself.

I want to look nice, look good.

I just don't want to look like a dropout.

I'm not gonna be the hobo anymore.

(dramatic music) - The final exam's done, so now we're getting into the plan.

Now we're just taking the stress and moving it from one plate into another.

(dramatic music) - Hello, good afternoon.

My name is AJ Rangel.

I'm here today to present to you my business plan.

- [Karen] They're gonna present what they learned in six weeks to a panel of farmers, bankers, investors, business analysts that are actually in a position to either hire or fund.

It's possible to walk out with $100,000.

- It's like "Shark Tank" 1.0, I'd love to see one of these guys on "Shark Tank" one day, you know.

Starting here and graduating to the big leagues, that's what we're looking for.

- [Man] You look good.

- [AJ] Thank you.

- The presentations we've had people not show up.

We've had people cry.

We've had people puke.

We've had people pass out.

We've had people hide in the bathroom.

- Public speaking is one of the scariest things in the world.

The indirect consequence of that is it builds confidence.

- [Shawn] The most nerveracking part of this course is actually getting up in front of these people and putting on this business presentation.

(crowd applauds) (dramatic music) - Service members tend to face higher unemployment rates, and we typically do a very poor job as a country in terms of transitioning service members out of the uniform into the general public.

But with that said, service members have a much higher rate of becoming entrepreneurs and members of the general public.

And so that entrepreneurial spirit is something that we want to capitalize on.

This is what makes us feel good at the end of the day, seeing these guys successful on the other end.

(crowd applauds) (dramatic music) - My name's Shawn Shimkets.

I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my business plan here for Red Hook Organics.

- My name is Dexter Weber.

The name of my company's gonna be Webber Organics.

- [AJ] Dragon Pi is a veteran operated sustainable microfarm.

- Since I was a United States Marine, I served nine years and did three tours in Iraq.

- My grandparents have been farming in Iowa since the 19th century.

- This is what I intend to sell at market, $2 a pound for strawberries.

- $2.75 cents per bundle, roughly a pound of Swiss chard.

- Any other fruit or vegetable.

- It will depend on the feedback that I'm getting from the market.

- Target markets, local supermarkets, local restaurants.

- I plan to use face, face-twit, whatever XX thing.

(crowd laughing) - Upfront cost of the cropbox is the $95,000 unit.

- $50,000 for land purchase of an acre.

- [Man] We're gonna get an FSA loan of $110,000.

- For the next two years, I'm drawing, you know, a decent profit at over $30,000.

- Have you met with any of these restaurants to find out first what are they serving?

- [Man] Yes.

- $95,000 seems high.

Is there any way to get that cost down?

- Sourcing materials in the Caribbean islands are really tough.

- Gotcha - What was your background in the military and how will that assist you with this new venture?

- My background in military, I was a IT guy information technology.

So my background as a planner, I think that's gonna help me be able to manage my farm.

(crowd applauding) - Its a little brutal, but it's still worth it.

Their real work begins tomorrow when they graduate, that's when the reality hits.

(man yelling) (light music) - I didn't get a chance to attend the graduation ceremony because I had my retirement ceremony going on during the same time.

- I'm happy that he's retiring.

25 years is a long time.

So now we can finally settle in Houston and be around family.

Monday might be a different story 'cause he won't be getting up to go to work anymore.

And gonna be like, "What do you want to do all day?"

(Shantel laughs) - There's gonna be a lot of discouragement along the way.

Virtually everybody's gonna to tell you you're crazy and you can't do it.

But one thing I can tell you, the fact that you're in this class means that you're already going against the grain.

Today's Vet is either labeled as a hero or a victim because that's how we treat him.

And I just think we have that totally backward.

The whole system has come to dishonor our service.

(crowd applauds) We should continue to lean on these people for those leadership skills, for that work ethic.

And that investment we make today to transition our service members will pay us back tenfold.

- Congratulations, I'm so happy for you.

- Thank you.

- Good Job, buddy.

- Thank you.

(Karen laughs) - [Karen] We grow basil, but we also grow farmers.

We've had over 400 students by now.

(light music) 68% either own their own farm or we're managing someone else's.

(light music) We have basil growers, kale growers.

- [Colin] Herbs, leafy greens, fruit and tomatoes.

- [Karen] Hot sauce makers, ketchup makers.

- [Colin] A pie company.

- [AJ] I would have never been able to have direction if I wasn't here.

- He did well.

I'm proud of him.

(woman laughing) - Right now with this momentum, I'm gonna go for it.

I'm gonna go for it.

(light music)