Fly fishers commonly step forward to volunteer for conservation and educational projects that help protect our fisheries. More recently, however, fly fishers are also volunteering to share our sport with veterans who have been wounded or traumatized in combat zones. It’s important work that not only helps these vets heal, it lets them enter a world that is literally as far away from the conditions of war as one can get. On this page and the next, we present two programs that can — and should — be replicated elsewhere in our state. —Ed.
Have you ever wondered how you could help servicemen and servicewomen returning (or trying to return) to their former lives after being wounded in combat? There are a number of organizations that use volunteers to help rehabilitate injured military personnel. Wounded Warriors is one that, among other things, provides a range of outdoor activities, including hunting and fishing, for those who have been harmed in the line of duty. Another such group is Project Healing Waters, which teaches fly tying, casting, rod building, and fly fishing to wounded veterans.
If you go to the Project Healing Waters Web site, www.projecthealingwaters.org, you can find their mission state-ment, which states: “Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc., initiated and conducted by members of the Federation of Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited, serves military personnel who have been wounded, injured, or disabled to aid their physical and emotional recovery by introducing or rebuilding the skills of fly fishing and fly tying and by using and enjoying these skills on fishing outings and as lifelong recreation.”
In California, the initial effort is occurring at the Veterans Hospital in Long Beach. Head of the Southwest Region of Project Healing Waters, which includes Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Hawaii, as well as California, Carole Katz is a former president of the Long Beach Casting Club. She said, “In the spring of 2007, I read an article in the Federation of Fly Fishers magazine about the original program at Walter Reed Army Hospital. At that time, they had not expanded beyond Walter Reed, but I thought it would be perfect for the Long Beach Veterans Hospital. It’s only half a mile away from our clubhouse.”
In May 2007, the Long Beach Casting Club became the second club in the country to start a Healing Waters program. “I have more than forty volunteers now,” Katz said. “Some of them work full time, so they are available to teach classes — fly tying, rod building, etcetera — only in the evening. A lot of them, however, are retired or in a position to adjust their work schedule so they can help during the day.” The veterans with whom the volunteers work are outpatients. They come to the VA for outpatient therapy and then go home. “They don’t want to come back in the evening, and many don’t have cars or cannot drive, so they rely on public transportation,” Katz noted, “and buses often stop running before evening classes would end. I’ve really been fortunate to have instructors who can work at the times when these veterans can come to classes.”
Katz said that the group first worked with patients who had psychological injuries, but lately, they’ve been working more with veterans with physical injuries. “There was a rod building competition recently. The club had eight veterans from the Long Beach VA facility who participated, and using donated rod kits, we taught them to build rods.
There were two categories, one for severely disabled veterans, those with arm or eye injuries, and one for able-bodied vets, that is, people who have full use of their upper limbs. The people in our classes won three of the six places, and a wounded veteran of the Vietnam war, Jesse Garza, won first place in the able-bodied category. These winners won fishing trips, eleven in all, to places such as Alaska.”
“I am absolutely enjoying it,” an enthusiastic Jesse Garza said. “A friend of mine at the VA told me about it, and I got into rod building and took the class. It’s a fantastic program for vets.”
Garza said he had seen videos of vets who have gone fly fishing because of Project Healing Waters and thought he wanted to try that. “ I was in Vietnam in 1967,” Garza said. “I was in the Fourth Infantry and was shot twice in my right leg. I feel that Healing Waters is a worthwhile program. I can see its worth in the guys I know who have become involved.
“I haven’t had a chance to fish the rod I built, but I am planning to,” Garza said. “I’ve been a fisherman all my life, lures and bait, but I’ve admired fly fishing, and now I am going to do it. I thank all the volunteers. They’ve done a tremendous job teaching us a new set of skills, a lot of applause goes to them.”
Working with the disabled veterans at VA facilities offers almost as much to the volunteers as it does to the veterans they teach. One such instructor for the Long Beach Casting Club is Dennis Martinez. A retired gunsmith and longtime fly angler, Martinez is positive that the programs benefit disabled vets.
“The most important reason I am involved is that I myself am a disabled vet,” Martinez said. “I heard about the project from a retired army major after selling him a fly-tying vise. He had a group around Fort Lewis that had started a club to teach fly tying to wounded soldiers returning from Operation Desert Storm. He gave me information about Project Healing Waters, including the Web address, and I looked into it.
“This new territory for everyone. Fortunately for our area, we have Carole Katz. Carole can do just about anything. She has the ability to juggle so much and keep it in order. She started the group at the Long Beach Casting Club. I told her that when it started to happen to put my name on the list. We taught a group of mentally injured vets, and we thought we had not done them any good, but the staff at the hospital said it was great. It made many of the wounded vets do better with their daily lives. We are just giving a little bit of our time, but to the wounded vets, we are giving a huge amount. It lit a fire under us. We have perhaps a dozen people that come to everything we do.”
At this point, there are a number of volunteer groups teaching aspects of fly fishing at VA hospitals in California. The original was the Long Beach Casting Club at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Long Beach. Others are at the West Valley VA, conducted by the Wilderness Fly Fishers; the San Fernando VA, conducted by the Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers; the Yountville Veterans Home, conducted by the Napa Valley Fly Fishers; and the Livermore VA, conducted by the Mission Peak Fly Anglers and TriValley Fly Fishers.
Project Healing Waters programs proposed for veterans hospitals elsewhere in California currently include the Barstow VA, to be conducted by the High Desert Fly Fishers; the Santa Barbara VA, to be conducted by the Santa Barbara Fly Fishers; and the Palo Alto VA, to be conducted by the Golden West Women Flyfishers and the Peninsula Fly Fishers.
Carole Katz noted that currently there are no Project Healing Waters programs in either the Sacramento or San Diego areas, and she hoped that would change in the near future. If more California fly-fishing clubs stepped up and took on the responsibility for a Project Healing Waters program in their area (provided, of course, they have a VA facility nearby), returning wounded vets would have more to which they could look forward. If you or your organization is interested, you can email Carole Katz at southwest@projecthealingwaters.org.
