Take a Soldier Fishing

[ledhead36]

Welcome to the site, and thanks for helping the soldiers, too many are forgotten.

[Fisterfam]

thank you ledhead. I have found it to be my therapy. I love the smiles and the endless stories, that is what keeps me going. Have a good night. Mike

[bunkerjoe4]

Hello Mike and welcome to the site!

I wanted to take this opportunity to speak a little about Mike Nashif, SSG. Our members may not know this, but he is one of the first people to promote the "Take a Soldier fishing" program.

As I understand it, he started his website back in 2001, and copyrighted the original idea.

Prior to that, I'm sure that several people wanted to help our returning, active, and disabled soldiers.

However, in many instances there were fractionalized systems in place. One guy in one state, helping a few, and getting recommendations. Another few guys in another state, helping here and there. And so on.

All the people involved in the efforts to help make the lives of returning soldiers better, all the way back to WWI, should be commended.

They all did things that 90% of us were not aware needed to be done.

Mike, as I understand it, was one of the earlier pioneers in this movement. It was through his incentive and efforts that a national, centralized registry was established and organized to take these ideals to the next level - to bring this gift of fishing, or help, to all soldiers who were interested.

As I understand it, in the last few years, there have been many organizations, websites, and groups that have gotten involved and branched out on the local level all over the US.

That's a beautiful thing - that so many individuals of different backgrounds could come together and decide to start grassroots movements to help our soldiers.

All these volunteers, and their participants, helped to create goodwill and fellowship that stretched beyond the US military bureaucracy.

This fellowship of different citizens from different backgrounds has helped thousands of soldiers have a few hours or a day away from the stress of being soldiers and protecting our country.

So I again salute all who have made any effort toward helping soldiers.

The reason I got involved is that I mever met Mike, but through his posts and communications, I have seen him to be a humble guy. I believe him to be fully committed to his "take a soldier fishing " goals and putting the good of the soldiers above all else.

He has managed to do this while he has had 2 deployments as active military.

To me, this is amazing. I know for me, running this website takes up tremendous amounts of my time. I salute Mike for being able to keep it running while he was deployed. It must have been incredibly tough.

I have been to his website, and it seems to me pretty straightforward -- you join the forums, post an interest in taking a soldier fishing, and he or they contact you to set the trip up.

Granted, sometimes it seems like it makes more sense on a local basis, and that's probably why so many grassroots organizations and websites have decided to go forward on their own.



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However, after thinking about it and reading some of Mike's beliefs, I think his centralized idea makes sense for the following reasons:

1. Organization and efficiency -- As more people get involved, different folks can offer different things, such as money, or donating supplies or fishing equipment for these soldiers to use. I think a centralized location makes more sense for these goals.

2. I can't speak for him, but I think he would be willing to link up with sites all over the country and provide a more efficient flow of information, thereby ensuring that more guys got to go on fishing trips.

3. Some have questoned his motives, and that's understandable for any person running a site where money is accepted.

My only response to you is this: If you have any doubts about him at all, go to his site, look at the testimonials, read the stories of people he has helped, and then make your own decisions.

4. Growth in target activities - he has mentioned not only fishing, but hunting, and other activities. Anyone who can help soldiers enjoy a few hours or an afternoon participating in any outdoors sporting activities should contact him with ideas and suggestions.


Here is a guy -- a soldier -- whose big dream it was many years to help his fellow soldiers in as many ways possible. I am honored to speak up for his site, and will try to help him any way I can.

To that end, I know how some websites are picky about mentioning other websites, competition concerns.

[I would invite anyone who reads the message here to go to other websites and put a link to Mike's site:

www.takeasoldierfishing.com on those sites.]



I am asking you to not include links to this site in this instance.

Just explain the program, ask if people are interested in helping, and paste the link directly to Mike's site.

I cannot thank our soldiers enough for the effort and sacrifices they make to keep our country and people safe.

Thank you all for reading this, and a giant "Thank you!" to Mike and others for their efforts.

[Fisterfam]

Thank you for the kind words. Now that we are a non profit organization and people see the scope of my wife and my dream they want to get their hands into it and call it their own. By all means you can. Start your own chapter, the only thing that i am asking of you is that you use our site to organize it. That's it. Thank you for the support. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have pertaining to our site and our mission. Thanks Mike

[clamchucker]

Thank you for all you have done for our soldiers, Mike. It must be tough being deployed and running things at the same time. I visited your site, looks like you have helped a lot of people. Thanks for your service, and keep up the good work.

[bunkerjoe4]

I would like to invite anyone who was interested in this thread to go to the Take a soldier fishing website.

http://www.takeasoldierfishing.com

All organizations need contributions to keep them running and help further their goals. Combat Warrior Crisis Network is no different.

Although I am still researching all they have done, I can encourage others to go their site and conduct their own research.

If you are not able to personally participate in taking a soldier fishing, your tax-deductible contribution can still help to make a difference. Look at what they have accomplished thus far, and make your own decisions. Thank you - bunkerjoe

[Fisterfam]

Combat Warrior Crisis Network legally became a non profit on August 1, 2008. Take a Soldier Fishing has been around a while. Right now our biggest contribution that we have been able to accomplish is the Ft Hood fishing program. In short we take 40 soldiers at a time to different lakes across Texas. We just completed our 7th trip this year at Lake Lewisville near Dallas. The surrounding communities have come together to show these soldiers support and put together a great event. Our biggest problem so far with these trips is securing transportation for these soldiers on a regular basis. Recently we have been told that we can no longer use government transportation for these trips because it is not "official business". Everything else has come together nicely. Our goals with this program is to be able to expand to other military installations and create programs for their areas as well. This allows soldiers the opportunity to get out of their rooms and away from base. If we can keep one soldier from thinking about suicide or from thinking too much about their deployments then we have done our job. We have also been told that we may have even found an alternative medicine for PTSD rather than taking more pills. Our first intention was just to take these soldiers fishing, it has become so much more to these soldiers. Thanks Mike

[BassBuddah]

Combat Warrior Crisis Network legally became a non profit on August 1, 2008. Take a Soldier Fishing has been around a while. ...

. If we can keep one soldier from thinking about suicide or from thinking too much about their deployments then we have done our job. We have also been told that we may have even found an alternative medicine for PTSD rather than taking more pills. Our first intention was just to take these soldiers fishing, it has become so much more to these soldiers. Thanks Mike

My uncle was in Nam, doesn't talk about it much, but a lot of guys who came back then were effed up in the head.

Any program that trys to help this is a cool one, thanks.