FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia — Steve Hotz started Black Horse Forge, a nonprofit organization that provides support for veterans, active-duty military personnel and first responders through the ancient art of blacksmithing.
The retired sergeant, who served 17 years in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, said he started the endeavor to teach the arts of blacksmithing, toolmaking and bladesmithing first to heal himself and then others who had brought ghosts home from war.
Hotz’s decision to join the military happened in the heat of an I’ll-show-my-boss moment: He was an interior designer, and she was giving him the business for reasons he cannot recall now. He walked across the street to get lunch, saw the Army recruiting office next door, went in and enlisted. Two weeks later, he was in Fort Benning.
The…
