Healing Waters encourages vets to tie flies and start casting

Anchorage Daily News ^ | 25 Oct 2010 | Mike Campbell

[smokingfrog]

It began, oddly enough, fly fishing near Saddam Hussein's palace in Iraq.

That's where Staff Sgt. Michael Henrie of Elmendorf Air Force Base was stationed in late 2008. In stocked waters around the palace and in the Eurphrates River swam carp-like fish. Some troops managed to secure gear from donor stores in the U.S., and before long, Henrie was casting.

"We signed out some fishing poles and went fishing in the desert," he said. "Fishing while you're wearing a Kevlar vest and a helmet with Apache helicopters overhead is a unique and inspiring thing."

Not long afterward, Henrie heard about Project Healing Waters, founded in 2005 by Navy captain Ed Nicholson while he was recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. The program encourages mentally or physically injured veterans to tie flies and cast in nearby lakes and streams.

[smokingfrog]

Project Healing Waters is looking for a new CEO, if anyone is interested. (Washington/Baltimore area)

http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/index.html

[WVNan]

I would like to nominate Dick Cheney.

[texmexis best]

I can vouch for the healing powers of fly fishing.

It also eliminated my bad case of carpel tunnel syndrome. It took only two trips ( 8 to 12 hours of fishing) and my arm was fixed up fine. No idea why, but it works.

[mickey finn]

Fly fishing, or any fishing for that matter does wonders for the body and mind. Even if you are balled up in a tree behind you, snagged on a rock, untangling your leader, loose a fish, fall in the river, it still gives your mind and soul a vacation from other crap going on in your life.

Catching fish is just a bonus.

I can’t imagine how much this program helps out the vets. I know here in Oregon many guides are involved with Healing Waters.

[Pompah]

Amen to that. Some of the happest moments of my life were
spent knee deep in a trout stream watching a bivisible land
on the spot I cast for hoping to match the hatch before the light faded and the day would end.
I can close my eyes now and still be on that stream.

[airborne]

Nothing like parking my wheelchair in the middle of a trout stream, fishing and drinking a cold brew!

[mickey finn]

In a couple of weeks I plan on going on a float trip down the lower Deschutes here in Oregon on a cast and blast trip. I hope it warms up a bit as we are having a week of winter storms this week. Hopefully the steelhead are willing and the birds are plentiful.