Montana Veteran’s art wins first place, earns national invite
By Jesus Flores, VISN 19 writer & editor
Earl Fred entered Montana VA Health Care System’s creative arts competition for the first time and won first place. His intarsia woodwork piece, “Grey Owl,” is made from 525 hand-cut and hand-sanded pieces of 4 types of wood.
“This is the first time I’ve entered this level of competition,” says Fred. “But it definitely will not be my last.”
The win earned the 92-year-old Air Force Veteran from Helena, Montana, an invitation to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in Columbia, South Carolina.
In the Air Force
Before he ever touched a scroll saw, Fred was teaching other airmen how to stay alive.
He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 to 1957 as a survival instructor, stationed in Reno, Nevada and Caribou, Maine. He ran a 15-day course that trained airmen to survive off the land, sea and desert if they were ever cut off from support. The final 2 days were escape-and-evasion exercises.
“The crews were given enough food for 5 days,” says Fred. “Beyond that, it was a real survival problem.”
What he’s most proud of came in the mail long after his service was over.
“It was receiving correspondence from crew members who were actually faced with, and found themselves in a real survival situation and thanked God for the training they had received,” says Fred.
During his service, Fred played in a baseball tournament in Wichita, Kansas, where he batted twice against a young pitcher named Sandy Koufax, years before Koufax became a Hall of Famer.
Discovering woodwork
Fred found woodworking at a local craft show around 2005. He stopped to talk with a man building intarsia motorcycles from wood. The man invited him to his shop, walked him through the process and gave him a couple of patterns to try."
That was the start of a rewarding and glorious hobby,” says Fred.
When Mike Bassett, an outpatient recreational therapist at Fort Harrison VA Medical Center, saw Fred’s artwork, he encouraged Fred to enter Montana VA’s creative arts competition.
Fred entered “Grey Owl,” won first place and received an invitation to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, running June 9 through June 14, 2026, in Columbia, South Carolina.
Being invited to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival at 92 means more to him than he expected.
“To reach the award level I have is one of the greatest achievements I’ve had in my life,” says Fred.
Love of the craft
Fred says the hardest part of any design is the time it demands. Some pieces have to be recut because they don’t fit right. Every piece has to be sanded by hand.
When he finishes, his first thought is always whether he could have done it better. His second thought is something different.
“Wow. I did it,” says Fred.
His woodshop gives him a place to settle his mind and something to look forward to every day.
“I’m in my own little world for a period of time,” says Fred. “The relaxation I receive while working on a project keeps me coming back.”
In the shop together
Fred doesn’t go to the shop alone. His daughter Karen is there with him nearly every day.
She learned the craft from him, and now they present together in shows, including 2 each year at Fort Harrison, where VA staff and other Veterans can see their work.
Karen says creative arts changed something in her dad.
“First and foremost, it gives him something to get out of the house for every day,” says Karen. “He takes pride in each piece and enjoys the creative talents it takes to complete a piece.”
For her, the time in the shop became something she didn’t expect either.
“I absolutely love spending half a day, every day, with my dad in the shop,” says Karen. “Having him teach me his hobby was just an added bonus.”
Fred says Karen’s decision to join him in the shop was one of the best things to come out of the whole hobby.
“It was great happiness for me when Karen said she wanted to take up this art form,” says Fred. “The big plus is the time we get to spend together.”
Why creative arts therapies
VA’s creative arts therapies use art, music, dance and drama to help Veterans work toward their rehabilitation goals.
The program supports physical, mental and social well-being through creative expression and gives Veterans a non-clinical way to manage pain, build focus and connect with others.
“I urge Veterans to find a hobby they enjoy, to keep their interest and to look forward to the next day and the joy received personally,” says Fred.
To learn more, contact Mike Bassett, Montana VA recreational therapist at 406-447-7070 or visit Creative Arts Therapies or National Veterans Creative Arts Festival.