For Lucas Papineau, who joined the Vermont National Guard when he was 18 years old, farming has helped repair his relationship with his family.
When Papineau got deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, he was only a few months away from becoming a young dad. Papineau says he was as ready as he could be for the difficulties of war. He says he did not anticipate how tough it would be to come home.
“So me coming back, I wasn’t used to having a kid. I was used to kind of like taking care of myself, and also always being vigilant,” Papineau says. “And so coming back here, coming to family with a child and everything, it was really hard.”
