Local veterans have the opportunity to learn how to play guitar, but the experience gives them far more than musical skills.
Lee Willard, a retired Marine Corps veteran and Certified Peer Specialist at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, leads the class in basic guitar instruction.
Willard usually works with veterans in a number of areas, including at-risk services, homeless veterans, HUD/VA housing, and services for those with severe mental health issues.
He approached his supervisor in October 2021 with the idea for the guitar group. The current pilot program launched in January 2022.
“The music group is integrated with our whole health philosophy,” Willard said. “Playing the guitar helps with coping and dealing with things.”
“It gives veterans a sense of purpose,” he said.
Willard has played guitar for 20 years, since he was 16 years old. During his deployment in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, he said that “one guy always had a guitar.”
“That gave me a sense of hope,” he said. “Music helps you cope with what you are doing.”
The group is not just about music, however.
“The guitar is a tool for veterans to get together and talk,” Willard said.
“The instrument makes an effective ice-breaker that allows them to experience the camaraderie of shared experiences as veterans,” he said.
Four veterans are playing in this first group, along with Willard and Jamie Jones, another peer specialist.
The original intent was basic instruction — the primary goal for the six-week course was to learn how to play three chords — but Willard said, “This group caught on quickly, and they have progressed past that point” after only three weeks of lessons.
Upon completion of the course, members will take part in a graduation ceremony in which each veteran gets a guitar of their own to keep. These guitars were donated for the program by members of the community.
The VAMC’s goal is to have a new group once every quarter, with four basic guitar groups completing over the course of a year.
Willard said they hope to create intermediate and advanced groups in the future.
“We want veterans to complete the basic course and then help new members to learn how to play,” he said.
Nurses at John J. Pershing are reaching out with information about the class, and other veterans are interested, so much so that they already have enough for their next class.
Classes are currently limited to five per group due to COVID restrictions, but Willard said the smaller class size is effective not only for guitar instruction but also for the chance to talk about other issues.
Members of the first class have nothing but praise for the experience.
John Washburn (Army, retired) said he thinks the VA has made a change for the better with this group.
“It gives me a chance to relate to fellow vets,” he said. He hopes to become an instructor in the Farmington area, where he lives.
Norman Davis (Army, retired) is the oldest member of the group at 85 years old.
“I always wanted to play, but I put it off,” Davis said. “I read about the VA group in the paper and signed up.”
“It’s a good bunch, a nice group of guys,” he said. “I like to sing, and playing guitar gives me something to do.”
Joseph Knight (Army National Guard, retired) said he has been asking for a group like this for a long time.
“I played with a similar group at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis,” Knight said. Although he had forgotten much of what he learned, it’s coming back to him in this group.