Healing power of 'being out there' helps wounded veterans

VIRGINIA BEACH

Jeremy Pierce, 23, closed his eyes and leaned up against the railing of the boat, turning his face into the sun and the sea spray.

"Your body naturally is going to heal itself," he said. "But right now I think all of us are trying to do a mental healing."

Pierce lost his left leg to a roadside bomb last August. Since then, he's been in treatment and rehab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. And his body is healing. He has a prosthesis now, and he can walk.

But Pierce, an Oregon native who also grew up in Alaska, has not found the city atmosphere of Washington to his liking.

So this weekend, Pierce and two buddies - both veterans themselves - came to Virginia Beach for a free fishing trip, courtesy of the group Veterans on the Water.

"I'm kind of a keep-to-myself, nature guy," Pierce said. "This is kind of a stress reliever for me."

The goal of Veterans on the Water is to connect boat owners with wounded combat veterans who could benefit from what organizer Anna Page Campbell called "the healing effects of just being out there."

Pierce decided last week that he wanted to try for a Memorial Day weekend fishing trip. Campbell paired him with Virginia Beach-based Rudee Tours, and by Sunday, the three of them were on a boat, equipped with beer and three kinds of bait.

"They can get on the water. We can get them out there. Just ask," she said.

Cpl. Keith Miller also lost the bottom half of his left leg to a roadside bomb in an explosion that he said shattered his foot and shin bones and left the sole of his foot pointing upward.

He says the hardest part was when he was an inpatient at Walter Reed, going through surgery after surgery, unable to leave.

"Five months in a bed is horrible," he said. At Walter Reed, "there are hundreds of us wounded guys. You're just surrounded by it every day."

On Sunday, Pierce was the only one to catch a fish - a 6-inch-long croaker that he tossed back into the ocean. But everyone was content with the day - and they still had jet skiing plans for later in the weekend, although they were paying for those themselves. As the boat headed back into the harbor, they spotted dolphins playing in the water nearby.

"Those look delicious!" Pierce joked, as other passengers on the boat gawked.

It's easy to get depressed at Walter Reed, Miller said - particularly if you never leave. "Lots of people will just sit in their rooms twiddling their thumbs. And then you just sit there and think about what all is wrong and not what all you still got," he said. "This is just a chance to get away and forget about everything for a weekend."

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com