River restoration

A fly fisherman stands in the middle of a river, whipping his fishing line back and forth as if he were an artist painting a masterpiece. Its a natural movement, and the 8-foot rod acts like an extension of his person, similar to the weapon he once held fighting in the Iraq War.

A whistling sound echoes as he sends the weightless fly soaring into the clear water where hungry trout await its descent. The trick, some say, is launching the lure with dead-eye accuracy. It is an art that is performed on a four-count rhythm between ten and two oclock, writer Norman Maclean explained in A River Runs Through It.

The art of fly-fishing is being perfected on the Lower Mountain Fork River that flows through southeastern Oklahoma by veterans from Project Healing Waters North Texas. The local organization is a branch of a larger nonprofit, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans.

There are an infinite number of lessons that rivers teach us, Matt Symthe, a veteran, wrote on the nonprofits website. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing works to give [injured veterans] something sustainable something positive that they can carry with them on their journey home, instead of the weight that has followed them back from war.

Former Gunnery Sgt. Lew Duckwall, a Lake Dallas resident, is the man behind Project Healing Waters North Texas. He takes a group of wounded warriors throughout the year to the Lower Mountain Fork River, located at the foothills of the Kiamichi Mountains, to spend three days lost in the beauty of Beavers Bend State Park.

I want people to know, said Duckwall, that the person who started this, who will be with them on every outing, understands what theyve been through because Ive been through it, too.

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Like Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge, Duckwall has a hard-edged presence shaped in part by the Iraq War, Operation Desert Storm, and a skirmish in the 80s in Central America that hed rather not discuss. But theres also something humble about him, seen as he slowly made his way toward a sitting room in the home of a Project Healing Waters volunteer in Corinth, where he discussed the goals of his new chapter that he began early last year.

Its a humbleness of a person whos nearly lost everything yet rediscovered his purpose, a newfound respect toward life, you might say, or an awareness that comes only from experiencing tragedy.

Duckwall comes from a patriotic family. His grandfather served in World War II, and his uncle fought in the Vietnam War. He had always admired people who served their country during times of war, so he joined the military a year after he graduated from high school in 1979.

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River restoration