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Veteran Outdoor Leadership Training: How MVP Builds the Team Behind the Mission
- Bryon Gustafson
- Mar 11
- 8 min read
Veteran outdoor leadership training doesn't happen in a conference room. For the Montana Vet Program, it happens in the mountains — in a cabin with no electricity, no running water, and no shortage of hard conversations. This past weekend, the MVP team gathered in the Highwood Mountains for our annual Team Leader Training: two days of strategy, physical work, and the kind of honest dialogue that only happens when you're away from screens and sitting around a wood stove.
Most people see what MVP produces on the outside — the trips, the miles, the conservation work, the veterans coming home with something they didn't have before. What they don't see is the work that makes all of it possible. This is what it looks like to build a veteran outdoor leadership team from the inside out.
How MVP Builds Its Veteran Outdoor Leadership Team
MVP's model only works because the people leading it have done the work themselves. Our team leaders aren't instructors reading from a curriculum. They're veterans who've been through the hard stuff — transition, loss, the weight that follows service — and they've found their footing in Montana's wild places. That credibility is what makes everything else land.
But leading therapeutic wilderness experiences for other veterans requires more than personal experience. It requires a shared language, a shared framework, and a team that trusts each other before they ever set foot on a trail with participants. That's what this weekend was built to reinforce.
Over two days we covered organizational direction, the StoryBrand framework and what it means for how we communicate our mission, the launch of our new Sportsman's Program (hunting and fishing experiences for veterans and their children), and the Seven Pillars of MVP — the internal framework that anchors everything we do when conditions get hard and clarity matters most. We also put in work outside the cabin, because that's what we do.
The Veteran Is the Hero. We Are the Guides.
One of the most important conversations of the weekend was about how MVP tells its story — and more specifically, who that story belongs to. The answer is simple: the veteran is always the hero. MVP is the guide.
That's not just a communication strategy. It's the foundation of how we operate in the field. Our job isn't to be impressive. Our job is to put veterans in environments where they can rediscover what they're capable of — physically, mentally, and in relationship with each other. Every piece of content we create, every post we publish, every story we tell needs to reflect that. If MVP is the loudest voice in the room, we've missed the point.
We also talked about authenticity — and what it actually looks like to maintain it as the organization grows.
That's where Julie Sickles, one of our newest veteran volunteers, had something worth saying.
From the Team: Julie Sickles, Team Leader
I was invited to the Team Leader MVP training this past weekend. What a privilege it was. I've been on a few trips with them before as a participant but this particular gathering's intention was different. It was a chance for all the more permanent people to get an overview of what MVP's vision of the next year was going to be.
One of the concerns raised was whether we were "selling out" to sponsors. If we accept new gear and take pictures of veterans using donated gear — and then use those pictures on MVP's social media — does that change the authenticity of what MVP stands for? Will it water down the image of what we're out to achieve?
What I appreciated about this group conversation was that there is a conscious awareness about what we say yes to. And that this subject is discussed openly and honestly for people in our group to weigh in on. In the end we all agreed that if a company generously donates something, it's like Aunt Lucie giving us a nice sweater and she wants to see us using it. What better way to show our appreciation than posting it on Instagram? We love Aunt Lucie, and we simply can't do it without her help.
Here's another thing that stood out to me over the weekend: team leaders were still doing their morning routine without participants present. Which tells me — this is a lifestyle, not something we do only when we're on an excursion with our veterans.
It was a great weekend and I would love to see more 'get to know your fellow Team Leader' exercises, so that when we go out into the wild there's a bond already established. But this was my first Team Leader meeting and I was really impressed with how thoughtful and intentional this organization is — the mission statement, the Seven Pillars of MVP. So that when things start to feel out of alignment, we always have those to come back to.
PT, Cold Water, and a Poker Game Nobody Won
It wasn't all whiteboards and strategy. After six hours of discussion, Frank — Luke's brother and our camp cook for the weekend — had an incredible spaghetti dinner on the table. One thing that holds true on every MVP trip: the food is always good and nobody goes hungry.
The evening ended around the wood stove with a poker game that was more comedy than cards.
Cameron Martinez, one of our team leaders, picks up the story from there.
From the Team: Cameron Martinez, Team Leader
This past weekend MVP held its annual team training event. True to form, it was held in the mountains, in a cabin with no electricity or running water. As a new member to the team leader ranks, there are a lot of things that are new for me, so I went into the weekend not knowing what to expect. Saturday began with some clean up and prep work as everyone made their way up the mountain. It was a good feeling to greet and hug friends that I haven't seen in months.
The training for the weekend was less about learning and perfecting new skills but more of an update on the future and structure of MVP and how these changes will allow us to better aid our brothers and sisters in the veteran community and continue to serve our community.
After a grueling six hours of discussion, our camp host had an incredible spaghetti dinner prepared for us. One thing I have learned working with MVP: there is never a shortage of good food. We all ended the evening with a gentlemen's game of poker, made all the more entertaining by the fact that most of the players either weren't paying attention or had absolutely no idea how to play in the first place. There was nothing but laughter and the smell of a wood stove at the end of the night when everyone made their way to bed.
The following morning began as well as the previous evening ended — everyone in good spirits and ready for the day. We had a few more topics to discuss regarding our conservation efforts, then moved to the last two activities that everyone may or may not have been looking forward to. We gathered outside for some good old fashioned group PT and a short hike down to the creek for some springtime cold water immersion. Cold water immersion is a staple of MVP program and has probably been the most difficult thing for me to get accustomed to, since I do not like cold water. Our camp host had a breakfast fit for kings after PT — and again after the cold water if anyone wanted seconds.
The weekend ended with everyone packing up and cleaning the cabin top to bottom to thank the owners for allowing us access to their property. The good times didn't end there — we had an hour or two of road time together to laugh again about the poker game and talk through everything we'd covered over the weekend. All in all, I came away with a renewed sense of esprit de corps and real anticipation for getting to share these experiences with new groups of veterans.
Veteran Team Leader Development: Earned, Not Appointed
What makes MVP's veteran team leader development different isn't a certification or a title. It's reps. Our team leaders earn their place by showing up — on VLTATs, on work trips, in the field, in the hard conversations.
Cameron Martinez is a clear example. He spent last year attending every VLTAT and conservation work trip, plus XM2 — MVP's advanced expedition that requires a prior VLTAT just to qualify. Last year's XM2 was an 80-mile traverse of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, led by Operations Coordinator Scott Moss. This year the program heads to Granite Peak — the highest point in Montana. Cameron didn't just show up. He earned it.
Julie Sickles brings a participant's perspective that's invaluable. She's been on both a hike trip and a float trip with MVP before stepping into the team leader role. That continuity matters. She knows what it feels like to be on the other side of the experience, which makes her a better guide.
The weekend also included Laura Zerra — MVP's Honorary Team Leader and one of the driving forces behind Montana Backcountry Immersion, MVP's five-day civilian fundraiser. Laura's wilderness credibility is the real deal, and her involvement in MVP reflects what this organization is built on: people who don't just talk about the outdoors, they live it.
What's Next: The Sportsman's Program
One of the most significant conversations of the weekend was the launch of MVP's Sportsman's Program — a new initiative bringing hunting and fishing experiences to veterans and their children. The hunting component is already in active development. Fishing will follow.
This is a natural extension of what MVP has always been about: putting veterans in wild places with purpose. For a lot of veterans, hunting and fishing were part of life before service — or they're experiences they've always wanted but never had access to. Either way, the field is where things get real. And when you bring a veteran's kid into that experience, you're not just building a memory. You're building something that carries forward.
Still Showing Up for the Land
Sunday morning also brought a conversation about MVP's ongoing Smith River conservation work with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks — a partnership that has been a cornerstone of this organization since 2019. Since then, MVP's veteran volunteers have contributed over $99,945 in conservation value through campsite stabilization, bioengineering, timber clearing, and habitat restoration along the 59.1-mile Smith River corridor.
That work continues in 2026. Training weekends like this one are part of how we make sure the people leading that work are ready for it — physically and mentally.
The Work Behind the Work
Building a nonprofit is hard. Building one the right way — with all-volunteer leadership, no full-time paid staff, and a commitment to never compromising the mission for the sake of optics or growth — is harder. But this team has figured out something a lot of organizations never do: when you put the right people in the right environment and give them a clear mission, the work takes care of itself.
That's what the Highwood Mountains gave us this weekend. Not a retreat. Not a morale event. A working weekend with people who showed up ready to build something worth building.
If you're a veteran looking for something real — a program built by people who've lived what you've lived — this is it. Learn more about what MVP offers at mtvetprogram.org.
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