From battlefield to farmland: North Carolina Army Reserve Soldiers enhance USDA with military skills
U.S. Army Reserve Soldier 2nd Lt. Kenneth Payne, signal officer for the 389th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, meticulously surveys land in Asheboro, North Carolina, to construct a dry stack building. Serving in his civilian capacity as a civil engineer technician with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Payne oversees the development of environmentally sustainable infrastructure designed to transform waste from chicken houses into valuable fertilizer.