COURTESY OF OPERATION REEL HEROES.
BARNSTABLE – Dozens of veterans and their guests will be on Cape Cod this weekend to fish the waters of Nantucket Sound.
The 3rd Annual Operation Reel Heroes will take out 40 vets from the Wounded Warrior Project and 5 from Cape Cod Veterans Center to fish for black sea bass, scup, fluke, flounder and striped bass on Saturday.
“Forty-five boats will be helping us out this year everywhere from all the way up on the North Shore of Boston all the way down to Cape Cod,” said event organizer Arthur Johnson. “We are looking forward to it and we’re looking forward to showing these guys a good time.”
Johnson said it is important to give back to these veterans who given so much to ensure we remain free.
“These people deserve it,” Johnson said. “They deserve to have a weekend that they can just sit back and let us kind of cater to them and really have nothing to worry about.”
Johnson said when Operational Reel Heroes started he envisioned only individuals with physical disabilities participating.
“What we found is there is a lot of people with PTSD out there,” he said. “A lot of people with psychological issues that they have to deal with coming back.”
Johnson said it is important to get these veterans some down time.
“Not only do we just get to bring these guys in and actually bring them fishing, a majority of us actually end up having lifelong friends that we end up talking to after the event as well,” he said.
A meet and great will be held Friday night to get the participants acquainted with their captains.
Each veteran is able to bring a guest on the fishing trip.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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