Veterans Disabled, but not unable

Disabled, but not unable
Lodge offers injured veterans, survivors of natural disasters experience of hunting, fishing
By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PLEASANT RIDGE PLANTATION -- The air seemed to get colder as the woods outside the camouflaged tent slowly brightened.

One bird called and another responded, as the forest, occupied by a Vietnam veteran, a volunteer hunting guide and a shotgun, woke up.

Waking up. Rejuvenation. That may be what is happening in a free program at Pine Grove Lodge in Pleasant Ridge Plantation that brings injured veterans and survivors of natural disasters into the woods to hunt and fish.

The program "has gotten me out of myself," whispered veteran Joe Baker, of Winslow, as he sat inside the hunting blind at the edge of a field in Concord Township at 4 a.m. He spoke softly so he wouldn't disturb the turkeys he hoped were perched on nearby tree limbs.

Doctors at Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta suggested Baker participate in outings like the one organized by Pine Grove Lodge, he said. They were concerned about how he was isolating himself.

Baker has post traumatic stress disorder and in 1968 suffered a traumatic brain injury on a Navy destroyer off the coast of Vietnam when a man closed a hatch door on his head and knocked him to the deck below. During his civilian career, he worked in the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is now part of the Department of Homeland Security.
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Disabled, but not unable