‘There’s nothing like a good fishing trip,’ Sault’s Huckson says of veterans event

A group of Sault and area veterans, male and female, ranging in age from their early 20s to 90, enjoyed the first annual Take a Veteran Fishing event, held Saturday.

“I’m 90 but I feel 50. I’ve got to stay young to keep up with these kids,” grinned veteran Bill Huckson, who served as a piper with the 49th Field Artillery Regiment for nine years, beginning in the late 1950s.

“It was a good day, I caught a pickerel,” said Huckson, founder of The Sault's Plumber (specializing in plumbing and renovations).

“I think it was fabulous. I hope they do this again. It’s good for the guys. There’s nothing like a good fishing trip,” Huckson said, speaking to SooToday.

Take a Veteran Fishing, as reported earlier by SooToday, was organized by the Algoma Fish and Game Club as a way for veterans of all ages to enjoy the outdoors and interact.  

21 veterans participated, gathering at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 on Great Northern Rd. before heading out for a day of fishing in the waters off Garden River First Nation.

“It was a great success, and we want to make this bigger next year. It’s going to be viral,” beamed Joe Giuliani, Algoma Fish and Game Club board of directors member and co-organizer of Saturday’s event, which included free coffee and muffins, packed lunches and a pasta dinner at the Legion in the evening after a day of fishing.

“We got to the Legion early and started setting things up, and the vets started rolling in around 7 o’clock, we had coffee and muffins for breakfast thanks to Tim Hortons. We had the national anthem, then departed from the Legion to go down to Garden River to launch the boats, and there was a wall of fog...the fog stayed on the river until about 11:30 or 12 o’clock and then finally the fog lifted, and the fishing was awesome,” Giuliani said.

“Every boat got fish. We ended up with probably close to 100 fish. We caught northern pike, walleye, a few bass,” said Giuliani, a Sault Area Hospital (SAH) food services worker.

Another vet who took part was the Sault’s Joe Kelly, who served with the Canadian Army in Bosnia in the 1990s as a driver/bodyguard for an officer in charge of coordinating humanitarian aid to civilians, then in Afghanistan in 2008 as a skilled tradesperson specializing in fire control systems, responsible for maintaining Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs), tanks, rifle sights and other military gear.    

Kelly, along with fellow Saultite and veteran Frank Iezzi, established the Algoma Veterans Association 15 months ago to help Sault and area veterans with the many challenges they face.

Click here to see earlier SooToday coverage of the Algoma Veterans Association.

Kelly, a married father of three, who was medically discharged from the Canadian Forces in 2014, now battles Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the added specialized help of a service dog.

“My first incident (which led to his being afflicted with PTSD) was in September 1998 when we responded to the Swissair crash (near the East Coast), we walked the coastline recovering anything and everything related to the crash, and then in Bosnia and Afghanistan.”

“In Afghanistan, I saw the ramp ceremony for a medic who was killed, I’ve lost four brothers in arms, three of which took their own lives (due to war-related trauma). I worked day in and day out with them.”

“Everybody has a bucket, and all your experiences are a drop in that bucket. Everybody’s bucket is a different size, and eventually, mine just overflowed, and PTSD for me was that breaking point,” Kelly said, sharing with us that the disorder can lead to severe anxiety for him.

Kelly described Saturday’s outing as “in one word, amazing.”

“I love getting out in nature, I do a lot of fishing, and having the guys (from the Algoma Fish and Game Club) taking us out there was a blast and therapeutic meeting with other veterans. We all have that closeness when you’re serving and when you get out, you lose that,” Kelly said, crediting the Algoma Fish and Game Club, the Algoma Veterans Association, social media and the Legion for their help in keeping the veterans connected for events such as Take a Veteran Fishing.

Kelly, by the way, hauled in four pickerel and a pike Saturday.

“We’re getting out a lot more (thanks to the Algoma Veterans Association),” Kelly said.  

“One guy told me he hadn’t been out fishing in 34 years, but we got him out today. We have a lot of ideas, fundraisers in the works for a retreat we’d like to get off the ground for veterans. We have a lot of ideas for veterans,” Kelly said.