Fishing Tournament for Wounded Service Members

Sixty-seven days after brain surgery, Staff Sgt. Dave Love was out on the Potomac, fishing for bass on a beautiful afternoon.

He and more than 90 other wounded warriors participated in the Army vs. Marines Spring Bass Challenge yesterday at Smallwood State Park in Marbury. The event was a welcome change of scene for men whose days can be a blur of doctor visits and who are often tormented at night by post-traumatic stress.

"This day is worth living," said Love, a 32-year Army National Guard veteran who suffered brain trauma from roadside bombs during four years in Iraq. "This is what life is about."

The service members were paired with tournament-level anglers, each of whom brought a boat and tackle. A few service members walked with canes, and one or two used wheelchairs. Most of the disabled service members were stationed at Fort Meade or Fort Belvoir or recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Tournament director Ken Kirk turned to bass fishing a decade ago after post-traumatic stress disorder brought him low.

"The next thing you know, no more headaches, no more nothing," he said. "If I can help one individual, if I can turn his light bulb on and help him recover, then we've accomplished what we set out to do."

A Marine sniper, he served in Panama, Somalia and the Persian Gulf War. At 42, he is two years retired and a tournament fisherman.

"This is stupid. That's the only way to describe it," he said. "Stupid, stupid fun. Crazy fun."

Kirk motored his bass boat past fellow service members, stopping at one point to compare notes with another Marine. ("Caught nine. Four keepers.")

Frank Tejada, 42, came to the tournament with his wife and 5-year-old son Nicholas. The Army sergeant's second tour in Iraq ended in spring 2008 when an improvised explosive device totaled his armored vehicle and left him with back, neck and shoulder injuries. He is stationed at Fort Meade.

The tournament "makes me feel that people care about us," Tejada said.

The event was hosted by the National Wild Turkey Federation's Wheelin' Sportsmen program and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Rosemary Whatley, 27, was among the spouses who waited on shore. Husband Darin, an Army chaplain's bodyguard, was shot by a sniper in Fallujah, Iraq. The bullet did not penetrate his body armor but left him with a severe back injury.

"The physical injury, you have to learn to live with it," she said. "The PTSD, that's the thing they struggle with. My husband, it really helps him to go out and do things. Fishing. The outdoors. Not the desert."

Also waiting on shore was Rebecca Moore. Husband Charles, an Army corporal, was injured when he fell into a manhole in South Korea. He has a bad back and PTSD.

"He loves fishing, he loves to hunt, but we just can't do it as much as we used to," she said.

At the end of the day, once the catch had been weighed, the Marines were declared the victors. They landed more pounds of fish than their Army counterparts, and they landed the largest single fish, at 6.26 pounds. All the fish were released.

Of course, winning was not really the point. Rosemary Whatley said the purpose of the event was "to bring some morale back to the soldiers, to try to help them feel better, because you know it's not an easy thing to be sick."