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.



*************************
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.