Crow Wing County’s Veteran Service Officer finds purpose through helping others

BRAINERD — Sometimes, it takes a veteran to truly understand what another veteran is going through.

For the past five years, Crow Wing County Veterans Service Officer Erik Flowers has helped hundreds of veterans get connected with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Minnesota Association of County Veterans Service Officers is a professional, statewide organization made up of over 145 specially trained and certified Veterans Advocates known as County Veterans Service Officers. They work collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, and Nationally chartered Veterans Service Organizations to promote the interests and welfare of U.S. Armed Forces Veterans, their family members and survivors.

“We're like the Swiss Army knife of the veteran community and organizations,” Flowers said. “We don't have personal funding to give out to veterans, but we help find resources for them. Both state and federal.”

Flowers took over the job in 2019 after Bob Nelson retired, following more than two decades of service to the veteran community. That service is something that drew Flowers to apply for the job.

Growing up on a hobby farm about 5 miles outside of Litchfield, Flowers — the youngest of three siblings — said he helped his parents work about 300 acres of corn, beans and animals.

“I just grew up running around, playing army in the woods and getting chores done and all that type of stuff,” Flowers said. “Wrestling and football. Yeah, those were my main sports.”

Flowers said as a kid, when not working on the farm, he could be found out on the lake fishing or in the woods hunting. Though he has less time now, Flowers tries to make time each year to head to Colorado for a hunt.

Flowers said he became interested in the military during high school in Litchfield. He had a wrestling coach, Charles “Chip” Rankin, who was in the National Guard at the time.

“When he came into the wrestling room the discipline, the hard work, the teamwork — it all appealed to me. This is what we needed as a team. I love this type of structure. It turned our team from never, ever going to state before in the history of Litchfield to going into state and taking second place, the first year that we went to state as a team.”

The Litchfield Independent Review wrote in January of 2023, Lt. Col. Charles “Chip” Rankin took command of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Red Bull Infantry Division.

Flowers said he thought about going active duty, though he wanted to go to college and gain some different life experiences, so he joined the National Guard his junior year of high school.

Waiting to go to boot camp until after his senior year of high school, Flowers drilled in Willmar with the engineer battalion.

Following boot camp and advanced individual training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in 2002, Flowers was assigned as a human resource specialist 682nd Engineer Battalion out of Willmar.

When asked about choosing his job assignment, Flowers laughed and said there are only a few jobs available for those who are red and green colorblind.

1/6: Pictures from Erik Flowers of his deployment to Kosovo in 2003. Contributed / Erik Flowers

2/6: Pictures from Erik Flowers of his deployment to Kosovo in 2003. Contributed / Erik Flowers

3/6: Pictures from Erik Flowers of his deployment to Kosovo in 2003. Contributed / Erik Flowers

4/6: Pictures from Erik Flowers of his deployment to Kosovo in 2003. Contributed / Erik Flowers

5/6: Pictures from Erik Flowers of his deployment to Kosovo in 2003. Contributed / Erik Flowers

6/6: Pictures from Erik Flowers of his deployment to Kosovo in 2003. Contributed / Erik Flowers

Flowers volunteered in 2003 for a deployment in Kosovo as part of a NATO peacekeeping mission. He said they deployed in 2004 as a type of police force to help keep the peace between local ethnic groups.

While doing the workup for deployment, Flowers said he met a girl. Staying in touch while in Kosovo, he knew he had met the woman of his dreams, and when he got home, he went out and bought a ring. Flowers married his wife, Tahnee, on July 30, 2005.

After they were married, Flowers said they lived in southwest Minnesota and his wife had a teaching opportunity at Central Lakes College, so they chose to leave the flatlands and move up to the Brainerd lakes area in 2006.

Looking for something fulfilling, he applied to work in the Crow Wing County Jail as a corrections officer.

“I enjoyed it. You know, I initially had full intentions, like, this is where I'm going to retire from,” Flowers said.

Flowers began working for the county in 2007 as a correctional officer and was promoted to sergeant at the county jail in 2009.

Also in 2009, Flowers' wife was pregnant with their first child and he was coming up on a big decision. With nine years in, he had to decide whether he would reenlist in the military or not. If he decided to stay in, he would be over halfway to retirement and would stay the full 20.

Flowers did not want to miss milestones of having a child and all they would accomplish because of a deployment and made the tough decision to leave the military.

“I'm a family guy, and I knew I'd find something else that would fill that void,” Flowers said. “So, I decided not to reenlist and got out of the Guard about 20 days prior to my daughter being born.”

Looking to get some camaraderie that he missed from the military and looking to help out his community, Flowers joined the Brainerd Fire Department in 2016 as a volunteer firefighter.

While working at a career fair for the Crow Wing County Jail, another Crow Wing County recruiter at the same fair informed him of the opening for a county veterans service officer.

“So I thought about it for a while, and I applied, and amongst my surprise, I was one of the top contendants and ended up getting the position,” Flowers said. “I feel like it's my purpose right now. It fills in the gaps of my why and now I look forward to coming to work all the time.”

He was appointed as the VSO by the Crow Wing County Board in May 2019.

“It's definitely rewarding helping veterans who had no idea what their benefits are, just like I was at one point,” Flowers said. “We help with navigating the VA system and getting them service connection, getting them health care, helping them out with rent, with different organizations out there, dental vouchers.”

From helping a few hundred veterans a year obtain the benefits they are entitled to getting help through community organizations, Flowers said this job gives him purpose. He encourages all veterans to apply for the benefits they are entitled to.

“No matter what, you're not taking away from another veteran by getting your benefits,” Flowers said. “In fact, you're actually helping other veterans out because funding is done based on numbers. So the more people that are showing the need for those benefits, the more it's going to get funded.”

Though out of the military for many years now, he, like many veterans, said he misses the lifestyle and people in the military. Though finding one's purpose in life makes living it that much better.

“There are things that I miss about the military, and you hear them stories, and you're like, that would have been pretty cool,” Flowers said. “You know, life experiences. I found something to replace that. I got hired on the Brainerd Fire Department as a firefighter. And it's that same type of camaraderie and adrenaline and service to our community that definitely gives me purpose. So I think serving others is in my DNA, in any way that I can do that.”

TIM SPEIER, staff writer, can be reached on Twitter @timmy2thyme , call 218-855-5859 or email [email protected] .