Wounded Warriors enjoy hunting and fishing trip with Mattaponi Hunt Club

Wounded warriors relish a chance to enjoy outdoors

Ken Perrotte's outdoor column
Date published: 12/11/2008


THE MEN piling out of the trucks at the Upper Caroline Fire Station Saturday clearly weren't your garden-variety hunt club members.

While military surplus camouflaged uniforms have been popular hunting wear for years, many of these guys were sporting the newer Army Combat Uniforms with a computer-generated pattern.

It was almost as though a small army was pouring in from the field to the massive buffet waiting inside. Twenty-one wounded warriors from the Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) at Fort Meade, Md., accompanied by nearly 50 members of the host Mattaponi Hunt Club, filed in to join the many members of the fire station, spouses and special guests.

Smiles abounded and stories of the hunt were eagerly recounted, especially tales of the big ones that got away by slipping through slight gaps between the guest hunters, despite the beagles' best efforts.

Hunt club Vice President J.T. Harrell said planning for the hunt began nearly two months ago following a September wounded-warrior fishing event on Lake Anna. A nearly 1,000-acre tract of land was lightly hunted only during bow and early muzzleloader season, resting it for the wounded warriors.

Capt. (Chaplain) Jeremiah Catlin was the Fort Meade group's leader, himself recovering from a severely damaged right shoulder following lengthy surgery for cancer. He explained that the top 20 finishers in the bass tourney won the rights to return for this deer hunt.

Catlin said the fishing tournament brought enduring, broad smiles to the faces of men no one had observed smiling much recently.

Harrell said once word of the hunt got out, unsolicited donations poured in, including food, funds for licenses, cabins at the KOA campground and processing of the deer. Staff Sgt. Jason Wood, a WTU squad leader, said: "I can't believe all the trouble people went to for this. I wasn't expecting this much."

After the post-hunt buffet, Fire Chief Steve Parrish presented the soldiers with certificates making them honorary life members of the volunteer fire department. They also received one-year memberships with the American Legion's Spotsylvania Post 320.

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