Project Healing Waters takes injured veterans from Walter Reed Medical Center out fishing, both for recreation and for recovery. The effort began when Navy Capt. Ed Nicholson (Ret.), an avid fly-fisherman, realized the activity might be therapeutic for wounded members of the military. This week, we'll hear from participants in the program during a day of catching trout at Rose River Farm in Virginia.
Capt. Eivind Forseth was a second lieutenant with the 82nd Airborne Division when his convoy was hit by an IED in January 2005 in Mosul. His right hand is paralyzed and he has limited mobility in his right elbow.
Forseth says he dropped into a depression after his injury and wasn't interested in going on a fly-fishing expedition with Healing Waters. But his mother and a fellow military member urged him to try it.
"Everybody that knows me and loves me just noticed a huge difference," Forseth says. "When I started helping with this program, that became my mission. That's just kinda what I started living for, besides my family."
This story was produced by Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices, a collective of independent radio producers.
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