Guitars 4 Vets empowering veterans through lessons

Walk through the double doors at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1585 on State Street in Bellingham, and you’ll be greeted by a tapestry of service and camaraderie shared by veterans spanning multiple generations.

Artwork and mementos adorn the slim hallway leading into the bar area speckled with vets conversing and relaxing. On the other side of the hall, a group is setting up for a night of live music.

Up a set of steep stairs, there’s a simple bedroom overlooking downtown Bellingham. In that room, Charlene Waters, a Birch Bay resident and Air Force veteran of 14 years, is teaching Fred Krapf, an Army veteran of 32 years, how to play the guitar.

Krapf, 71, said he first picked up a guitar when he was about eight years old, but never could get the hang of playing. For years, he had dipped a toe in, without fully immersing himself in the initial, fingertip-blistering learning phase that seems to stop so many other students.

“I could have taken the acoustic that I bought to Iraq with me, but decided not to,” Krapf said, reminiscing on his time stationed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. “There was a youngster in my unit whose family sent his, so I fiddled around with that a little bit.”

Krapf, like so many other veterans, developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a long career of multiple combat deployments. He said he would often suffer from anger issues mainly over poor decisions from leadership, an “age-old thing” among veterans, Krapf said.

He worked as a peer mentor with the Wounded Warrior Project, and it was there that he learned about alternative therapy methods, including Animals as Natural Therapy, a Whatcom County animal therapy nonprofit that pairs people with animals, primarily horses.

Years later, Krapf wanted to pick the guitar back up, and heard through social media about Guitars 4 Vets (G4V), a nation-wide charity providing guitar lessons for veterans. The only problem was, there wasn’t a chapter set up in northwest Washington.

That’s where Charlene Waters came in. 

Waters learned of G4V through the charity Challenge America Veteran Arts Community, which connects veterans with art programs and works closely with G4V. Waters quickly joined to teach online lessons, and was picked out to lead the beginnings of a Bellingham branch as chapter coordinator.

The program began in September 2024 with Waters and just a few pupils, mostly doing online lessons. Those can prove a bit tricky, so Waters reached out to the local VFW to host in-person lessons. It was a no-brainer, Waters said.

“It’s there for vets,” Waters said of the VFW post. “They’re here to help vets. That’s part of the mission.”

Waters also lives with PTSD and struggles with insomnia. When her symptoms get triggered and her head begins to spiral, she goes into her music room and picks up her acoustic guitar.

“It slows everything down for me and really brings me back from this mad racing that, if it was physical, it would literally be running back and forth,” Waters said. “With the guitar and the music, just letting myself get into the music, it’s very meditative. It helps me so much.”

Going into the sixth month of the program, the Bellingham chapter of Guitars 4 Vets has eight students and an additional instructor. Some lessons, Waters said, the guitar is the least important part.

“Sometimes our lessons are more about a therapy session than it is about a music lesson,” Waters said. “I don’t pretend to be a mental health professional. I’m not. I don’t offer advice. But sometimes people just want somebody to listen. And somebody who will and understand.”

Krapf said having a veteran-to-veteran connection during his lessons is crucial, and that unspoken bond has kept him practicing and learning guitar more than he ever.

“It’s very therapeutic. Veterans have countless reasons for the baggage we carry,” Krapf said. “These things take your mind off what you don’t want to remember.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans die by suicide at a rate of 34.7 per 100,000, more than double the non-veteran rate. In 2022, roughly 17 veterans died by suicide every day.

“ If teaching somebody guitar will save one veteran from deciding that laying on the dirt is better than walking on the sidewalk, it’s worth it,” Waters said.

Call 911 if you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis or suicidal thoughts.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for veterans is 988(press 1) or text 838255 for a crisis counselor.

The Whatcom County Triage Center crisis line is 800/584-3578.

For more information on veteran mental health services, visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website at bit.ly/42KtfxH.

For more information on local mental health resources, visit namiwhatcom.org/crisis-resources.html.