Fly-fishing program helps veterans emotional difficulties work through physical control lifes
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The 26-year-old former Army sergeant joked about the loss.
“I’m not trying to hurt the fish,” he said, to a group of fellow veterans.
Gil was one of about a dozen combat veterans who were fly-fishing Monday along Spruce Creek as part of the physical and emotional rehabilitative program Project Healing Waters.
“It’s changed my life. Two months might be a short amount of time,” said Gil, from Brooklyn, N.Y., “but it gave me the courage and willpower to wake up in the morning and ... try to live.”
Gil enlisted in the Army in 2002, served two tours in Iraq, and saw heavy combat. In 2003 and 2004, he was stationed with the 1st Brigade, 1st Calvary Division in the Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad.
From late 2005 through 2006, he served with a joint Army-Marine task force in charge of scout and intelligence work that traveled throughout the country to cities such as Tal Afar and Ramadi.
He received the Army Commendation of Valor and the Purple Heart after being injured by a suicide bomber on Dec. 1, 2006. He stopped a car full of explosives, but it was close enough to leave shrapnel in his hands, forehead and legs.
He left Iraq in early 2007, and the Army in 2010.
“I went from being a sergeant, from having so much responsibility — every day you wake up, you know every move you make, you’re making a huge difference in the world — to next thing you know I’m just plain old Joe,” he said, “and that’s something seriously hard to swallow.”
He had other challenges and other scars that weren’t as visible as those left by the shrapnel. Post traumatic stress disorder prevents him from pursuing his original plan of becoming a police officer. He felt isolated and disconnected from his family, who he said is opposed to the war.
And a brain injury from the explosion went undiagnosed — he said he later learned that
the seratonin levels in his brain had changed, which can cause depression. He was close to being homeless.
In June, he attempted suicide. He ended up at the VA hospital in Manhattan. The doctors diagnosed his brain injury, got him on medication and into counseling. And one of them referred him to the Project Healing Waters program, which is dedicated to using fly-fishing to help both active duty soldiers and veterans heal.
Monday was Gil’s third fishing trip. The other fly-fishers called him “Nicko,” short for his middle name of Nicholas.
They were at one of the best trout fishing spots in the country, about four miles east of Spruce Creek Township, off state Route 45. They were fishing next to a wooden covered bridge — the Harpster Bridge — that former President Jimmy Carter helped build, and staying at a lodge where Carter slept.
Gil worked one on one with Dave Miknis, a 44-year-old from Punxsutawney who’s been fly-fishing for most of his life.
Miknis, a control systems operator for Dominion energy company, heard others in the company had partnered with Project Healing Waters to organize an outing in Virginia and decided to organize one in Pennsylvania. American Legion groups from Tyrone and State College, and the VFW post in Pine Grove Mills volunteered to provide food for the group each day. TCO Fly Shop in State College donated 250 fishing flies, as well as gear and books.
“It’s been awesome. ... They know it’s not the best time to be fly-fishing for trout,” said Miknis, but added, “They’re all very optimistic. ... They give it heck and they have a good time.”
This time of year, the heat makes the streams low and clear — and the trout easily spooked. At one point, Gil joked that he was in a Tiger Woods-style slump.
Still, Gil caught three fish in the morning — and like others in the group, released all of them. The group was planning to go out go again in the evening, once the temperatures cooled, and again today and Wednesday morning. Gil spent Monday afternoon hanging out on a porch, talking with Vietnam veterans and fishing guides.
Gil credits those types of conversations with helping him decide on a career path. He’s enrolled in New York City’s Hunter College and plans to become a history teacher.
“I want to help kids ... to try to guide them on a path,” he said. “The way they helped me.” Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.
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