Pennsylvania is home to the nation’s fourth-largest veteran population. Veterans living in Michelle Lang’s hometown of McConnellsburg make up a large portion of the community.
Lang married the local “townie” from her college days, followed him to Fort Drum, and was suddenly thrown into a world she wasn’t prepared for. She never planned to be a military spouse, much less the eventual founder of a nonprofit standing in the gap for rural veterans and their families.
“I knew he was a soldier but had zero clue of what I was in for,” she laughed.
After graduating with her sports management and exercise science degree, she headed north with the promise of a wellness position on base. It never happened.
“I was really, really, really depressed. Not hireable. I lied to many interviewers… made it to the last round of three jobs and then they’re like, ‘You smell military,’” Lang shared. “The only job I could get was selling jewelry at Zales. I was miserable. At one point I was working four different jobs to make myself feel like I was contributing.”
During this time, she learned the power of community and credits the local gym with saving her life. Lang started teaching classes and getting involved; things were looking up.
New orders to Fort Benning arrived when she was six weeks pregnant. They were excited for the new adventure.
“He put in a packet to go warrant officer… had remarkable test scores, did SERE school, everything. But then he actually had a general come and pull his packet and say, ‘We can’t lose any more infantry officers,’ and just tanked his career,” Lang said.
It led to a deep depression for her husband, one that would spiral into suicidal ideation and frequent check-ins as she progressed through her first pregnancy.
“He ended up checking himself into an inpatient psychiatric facility. There was a huge moral injury he was dealing with,” she explained.Ultimately, with a stalled career, her husband decided to leave active duty and move into the reserve. The loss of service was harder than either of them could have prepared for, even with the family relocated back to Pennsylvania. When he approached the VA with suicidal thoughts, he was denied care.
“The therapist up there in rural Pennsylvania didn’t have military experience and basically was like, ‘I just don’t understand. I don’t understand what your problem is,’” Lang recalled.
When the family had to help a local Vietnam veteran find a home to avoid homelessness, Lang started to realize there was a whole segment of the military population not being served well.
Ultimately, her husband decided to return to active duty, and the family moved to Fort Benning. After having her second child, Lang experienced significant postpartum depression and moved in with her parents while he was deployed for support. Upon his return, the family relocated to Fort Bragg in 2021.
As Lang tried to figure out her next career move, both she and her husband couldn’t stop thinking about the rural military community and lack of support. Operation Honor Rural Salute was born.
“Our mission is to connect and support rural military families, Guard, Reserve, and active duty, as well as veterans, to make sure they are connected to the resources that they’ve earned and they feel like they’re part of a community to help revitalize rural America and their families,” she said.
As Lang considered her own community where there’s a high percentage of veterans but little to no services, it was apparent something needed to be done.
“Rural veterans have a three times higher suicide rate than urban veterans, and are 60% of veteran suicides—they never have contact with the VA,” she added.
Five years later, OHRS has made a significant impact on multiple rural military communities by hosting connection events in the heart of each town. The organization is also a resource hub and works to connect those in need.
“One of the things that I’m most excited about is the community that we’re building… We do a lot of work behind the scenes, and then we’re starting to build out these programs so the impact can go deeper than just one-day events,” Lang explained. “We really want to start to transform people’s lives to then impact their community. The ripple effect is what I’m really passionate about.”
What started as one event in each state a year has grown to four. Knowing that chronic illness is a growing problem, she and the team are looking to create programs around preventative care tailored to rural America.
“Nobody really wants to be educated by the government once you leave a government organization. And so our goal was to be the vessel that’s just in between,” she explained.
In the quiet corners of rural America, change doesn’t always look like an invasive federal initiative or a new building going up on base. Sometimes it looks like a military spouse in a small town, answering messages from exhausted caregivers or standing in front of a room of ten veterans in a county most people couldn’t find on a map.
“I’m just delusional enough that I’m just like nothing else matters; we’ll get it done. There is so much support out there, and there are so many people that care,” Lang said. “It’s just nobody has used their voice to speak directly to them, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
Learn more at Operation Honor: Rural Salute.
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