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Chad Brown put down a gun and picked up a fly-fishing rod. The Navy veteran turned gear designer now wants kids and vets to heal each other on the great American waters that saved his life.
By: Patrick Symmes Jun 16, 2015
So an Irish American, a Mexican American, an African American, an Asian American, and an Irish-Ukranian-Filipino American walk into a bar. Actually, its a breakfast bar. Its zero dark thirty on a cold January morning, and were at a tiny café in Oregons Willamette Valley. After some coffee, we are going to chase winter steelhead.
But we dont actually get to the steelhead, not yet. When the coffee comes, its still dark, and still winter. So the most multiethnic breakfast party in the history of Oregon sits down to talk. The sport of steelhead fishing has its own complicated rituals and lingo: there are big sticks, or double-handed fly rods, and the D-loop, a Jedi-style motion that can fling out a long, heavy line. Regular sticks are just oars. Double Speys and snake rolls are casting techniques from Scotland; Scandis are Swedish lines well adapted to these big Oregon waters.
Lets deal with the fish right away. About 20 inches long, sometimes much more, steelhead are named for their dull silver, bullet-shaped heads, but depending on their life stage and the time of year, they can be silver-bright from the ocean or passionately colored like mutant rainbow trout. Big and strong, they have the habits of salmon, like going to sea and then, upon their return, refusing to bite a fishermans hook. Theyre so hard to catch that theyre known as gray ghosts.
You hear some anglers call them unicorns, says Chad Brown, the black guy with the deep voice surrounded by fishing buddies. Unicorns are talked about but never seen. Chads been fishing for steelhead for four years and hasnt caught one yet.
Steelhead are the real reason for this gathering, but Chad is the excuse. Hes a U.S. Navy veteran who participated in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, served at Guantánamo Bay, and saw combat during Operation Restore Hope, in Somalia, during the infamous Black Hawk Down era. That he came back with post-traumatic stress disorder is no news in this erasince 2001, more than 378,300 U.S. military personnel have sought treatment for potential PTSD from Veterans Affairs facilitiesbut hes also an artist, designer, and educator who believes, he told me at breakfast, in finding a way to radiate your pain outward to help others.
Complete story at - http://www.outsideonline.com/1988036/hooked
Great video on the page, but couldn't get it to work here...
madokie
(51,076 posts)That was an excellent read. I loved it and can't wait to read more of this gentleman's writing.
I highly recommend this to any one especially our Veterans. any war. Stop here and have a good read its soothing.
I came home from my war bug nutts and more or less found my peace on a small lake with a fishing rod in my hand chasing big bass. Back then I didn't have VA all I had was me a bag of weed and a small bottle of peppermint schnapps. I don't fish anymore but do plan to once my wife retires here in a couple years
ETA: I have an enormous respect for Chad. Just from reading this story I come away feeling I know him like a brother.
MattSh
(3,714 posts)I'm always on the lookout for inspirational reads like this. And I'm happy to pass them along when I come across one!