Finding a veteran’s purpose on the river with Warriors & Quiet Waters

He stood silently watching the orange fluorescent line whipping through the air before dancing the fly down next to a quiet eddy near an overhang that looked like a pretty good spot for a fish to hang out. He forgot all about his own fly rod and tangled line while he was watching his teammate, a veteran like him, have more luck with the equipment. 

His morning had been dominated by snags, tangles and frustration. Ever since “Operation Brown Trout” began with their cohort of eight veterans donning waders and creeping through the woods with fly rods to catch the elusive brown trout unawares at first light, he’d struggled. If he had been on that river alone, he would have left a long time ago. He was still there, because he wasn’t going to leave his seven teammates. 

Put eight vets together and they will do military things, he supposed. Operation Brown Trout was a corny way to think about their fishing trip and they all knew it, yet somehow it was familiar. It was meaningful in a way his missions in uniform had been. Kinda anyway. They’d all met a little over a week ago online through the Built For More program offered by Warriors & Quiet Waters, a 501(c)(3) Veterans Impact Organization specifically serving post 9-11 combat veterans. 

He knew that each member of their group had served in combat just like him. While he was there largely because he didn’t know what else to do and somehow this program made his mom and dad feel better about his future. He knew that others in the group were dealing with more than just the disconnected feeling of loss that comes with returning to civilian life.

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