Fishing Good Medicine For Disabled Vet

STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF Jeff Thompson, left, founder of Operation Troop Salute, helps Brad Belt of Mulberry select the right lure Thursday for a morning of fishing at Beaver Lake. Belt is a disabled Arkansas National Guard veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder after his service in Iraq. Thompson and his wife, Carol, follow the FLW Tour and take disabled veterans fishing during FLW tournaments.
STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF Jeff Thompson, left, founder of Operation Troop Salute, helps Brad Belt of Mulberry select the right lure Thursday for a morning of fishing at Beaver Lake. Belt is a disabled Arkansas National Guard veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder after his service in Iraq. Thompson and his wife, Carol, follow the FLW Tour and take disabled veterans fishing during FLW tournaments.

While the FLW bass pros tried their darndest to catch fish, Brad Belt didn't care if he didn't get a bite all day.

Belt was happy to be on the water, happy to be in the sunshine and happy to hear the waves lap against the hull of his friend's boat. Fishing is part of the medicine helping Belt deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Fast Facts (w/logo)

FLW Fishing

• Fishing continues today in the Walmart FLW Tour bass tournament at Beaver Lake and concludes Sunday.

• Take-off is at 7 a.m. from Prairie Creek park. Weigh-in is at 3 p.m. at Prairie Creek. Weigh-ins Saturday and Sunday start at 4 p.m. at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers.

• About 175 pro division anglers and 175 co-anglers compete. Co-anglers fish from the back of the pro’s boat. Entry fee in the pro division is $4,000. Co-angler entry fee is $700. First place in the pro division receives $100,000, or $125,000 if the pro drives a Ranger boat. Co-angler top prize is $20,000.

• Beaver Lake is the fourth stop this season for FLW anglers.

• “FLW” stands for Forrest L. Wood, founder of Ranger boats. Ranger is a major tournament sponsor.

• Only the three species of black bass — smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass — may be weighed. Smallmouth and largemouth bass must be 15 inches or longer. Spotted bass must be 12 inches or longer.

• The FLW expo will be from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the John Q. Hammons Center. Pro angler Rich Dalby will sponsor a food drive for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. Everyone who donates five cans of food will be entered into a drawing for a $100 Walmart gift card.

• All FLW weigh-ins and activities are free.

Source: FLW Outdoors

Symptoms appeared after he returned from Iraq, where he served with the Arkansas National Guard.

When FLW Tour pros zipped past in their boats Thursday, Belt waved a friendly howdy. He got to fish courtesy of Jeff and Carol Thompson, who run Operation Troop Salute. Jeff Thompson is a disabled veteran himself, and started the organization in 2009. Its mission is to get disabled veterans outdoors, out of the house and fishing.

The Thompsons live in Indiana and follow the Walmart FLW Tour bass circuit competing this week at Beaver Lake. They take disabled veterans fishing at each tournament. There's no fee, but there's always a good time.

"I don't care if I don't catch a thing, I'm happy," Belt said while fishing a rocky point near Prairie Creek park.

Belt doesn't elaborate on the incidents overseas that caused his condition. "The things I saw. The things that happened over there," he said quietly.

He saw buddies die in a mortar attack. Belt served in Iraq during 2004-2005. He joined the National Guard shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. "At 11:30 that morning I was on the phone with a National Guard recruiter," Belt said.

Doctors do their best to help him. He takes medication. He fishes and gets outdoors -- a lot. Post-traumatic stress doesn't stop him from whitewater kayaking, hiking and hunting. Belt helps with activities offered by the Wounded Warrior Project, which assists veterans who became disabled after Sept. 11, 2001.

"It helps us get back into society again and not always be in the military frame of mind," Belt said. He misses being in the military, the veteran added, in spite of his disorder.

Wounded Warrior Project holds running and walking events, bicycle rides, hunting trips and more.

Operation Troop Salute works with Wounded Warrior to take disabled veterans fishing. The Thompsons contact a local representative before an FLW event to get word out that they have free fishing trips to offer.

Jeff Thompson served in the Marines as a pilot. Twenty-seven years of flying and training took a toll on his back. Eventually Thompson couldn't walk, but he found a way to fish.

"He's an avid fisherman and was out there on his hands and knees," said Carol Thompson.

Jeff Thompson got the idea to design a rail system for his fishing boat that gave him something to hang on to, something so he could drag himself around in the boat and fish.

Now Thompson can walk. Surgeries got him back on his feet, but he's not 100 percent. His back is full of enough titanium to stock a shelf.

A chance meeting with Forrest Wood, founder of Ranger Boats in Flippin, led Thompson to start Operation Troop Salute. He said he casually mentioned to Wood he wished he could start an organization to help disabled veterans by taking them fishing.

Wood took the idea to heart. Soon Thompson had a gleaming Ranger bass boat to use, festooned in red, white and blue. The boat includes the rail system Thompson designed, only now it's stainless steel. An Indiana company, EPCO Products, got wind of the rail system and now manufactures and sells the steel version.

"Corporations and companies make all of this possible," Thompson said.

Operation Troop Salute isn't affiliated with the FLW, he noted. "But they all know us, so we're part of it."

The Thompsons will take more disabled veterans fishing at Beaver on Saturday and Sunday. Thursday was Belt's day in the sun.

"I take a great honor in these two people letting me be on this boat," he said -- fish or no fish.

NW News on 04/11/2014

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