Hookin Veterans is a Palm Coast-based non-profit that provides services to veterans nationwide. The goal of Hookin Veterans is to provide vets of all disability levels with a place to talk about their mental health, build a tribe of veteran friends, and regain some semblance of that brother/sister in arms they had in the military during their service.
One of the founders, Joseph, AKA Booch, sat down with us to talk about the organization, how it got started, and what the plans are for Hookin Veterans in the future. Our questions are in bold, followed by Joseph’s answers.
Tell us about yourself, your background, and how you eventually started Hookin Veterans. I was a staff sergeant in the US Army and was medically retired in 2017. In 2015, I was doing an event called Salute to the Troops by American Airlines USO where I ran into Tyler, who was sitting in his chair with his new wife Lauren. We were just having. casual conversation and I asked him where his accident happened, and things of that nature. Tyler said he was in Kandahar in 2011-2012, which is the same time I was there. I asked him if he had ever flown on a Chinook, and he said “Yeah, that is what flew me in and a few months later I got blown up.” I was a door gunner, flying people in and out. We didn’t know we weren’t allowed to paint our faceshields, so ours were all painted. I showed him this picture of me with my painted faceshield and he looked at me and the photo and said “You flew me in, and then I got blown up a few months later.” We hit it off after that and have been friends ever since. We went helicopter hog hunting in Texas, and then we went deep sea fishing, which is where we met Colby. Colby was working for one of the gentlemen who owns one of the boats that we now use for Hookin Veteran trips. Tyler was sharing this dream and his vision of what he wanted to do for other veterans because of his time in Walter Reed where they took him to the Keys for fishing and he found therapy in that. Tyler, Colby and I started Hookin Veterans shortly after. We took a couple of vets out in 2018 and that was really our first trip. You could see from the time they got there, they’re very somber and kept to themselves, and by the end of the trip they were hugging and talking about how cool it was to hang out. Their whole demeanor changed, and that is when we filed for the 501, which we were awarded in 2019 and we are now in our sixth year for Hookin Veterans. We have probably helped over 60 veterans now, as these trips can be quite expensive.
You could be 10%, 30%, or 100%, it doesn’t matter. We are targeting Vietnam Veterans because of everything they went through, you know being spat on and having a country turn their back on them, things of that nature. And now with all the ailments that these guys received from Agent Orange and just not being treated properly, coming home, etc., that is why we are targeting them, just to show, hey, this generation appreciates what you do, we are here for you, we love you, and we want to show our appreciation for you.
Where did the inspiration behind Hookin Veterans come from? The inspiration behind Hooking Veterans really came from Tyler. Tyler found that the talk therapy, as we call it, with other veterans on the water was amazing. Because when you’re on the water there’s nothing around, there’s no background noise, you just hear the boat, you hear the talking, but it’s just you in nature. Part of the problem is when you’re sitting there isolated by yourself in your home or whatever, you just dwell on the past. You dwell on those thoughts that you don’t want to think about. But when you’re on the water with a bunch of other veterans that have been where you’ve been, in the same mud as you and everything else, that’s where the therapy comes out. You’re able to share those stories that no one else would get, and that’ why we do it.
You mentioned that Tyler got this idea from him time at Walter Reed? At the time Tyler was at Walter Reed, people would donate trips and stuff like that, so I don’t know the full background of how it happened, or how he was able to go on this trip, But I know being in Walter Reed and during his healing time and his recovery time, there were little trips that they would take you one, and going down to the Keys for fishing just happened to be one of them. He felt this sense of overwhelming therapy and peace now that he can still do things like this, and that is why he’s sharing that with other guys. We have had double amputee’s, this past trip Jay was with us, he is a double amputee, both above the knee, and he was able to go fishing, we were able to make it work, get him to the docks and on the boat and he was comfortable. He was catching sailfish and hanging out with these other guys.
So you’re making a lot of dreams come true for a lot of these guys? Absolutely, and I tell the guys at the end of the trips, we always do little awards, like most fish caught, most sailfish, most meat fish, smallest fish. The person with the most sailfish gets a big crystal sailfish trophy with the name of the boat and the veterans names on it. We really try to make this as awesome as we can for these guys. A once in a lifetime experience. All white glove, they don’t have to do anything. It’s a nice slow stretched out schedule.
You said this is your sixth year with Hookin Veteran, where do you see the organization in the next six years? That is a great question, we have some other programs we are working on now, one in particular that we are kicking off, is we are now partnered with the Gary Sinise Foundation, and the Chef Robert Irvine Foundation. They help partner with us because we’re also an adaptive nonprofit. So we actually target single arm amputees where they have their Hosmer hook. We met a gentleman who was an engineer, and we actually made a device where they are able to hold a fishing rod again with their Hosmer Hook. It locks into, so when those veterans come out, we send them home with this device with three different attachments so they can hold three different sized fishing rods and fish with their grandkids or their kids. But where we see ourselves in six years, actually we are quite comfortably where we are like we want to do a couple more trips a year, maybe one a quarter, and then have our big tournament. But if we grow too big, too fast, and start doing so many events, we lose that connection. You lose that ability to build the bond and the camaraderie with the veterans, then it becomes impersonal. So 18-20 veterans, we are comfortable with that, we don’t want to have 30-40 guys out at one time, because then they never get to meet each other. There’s not enough time for these guys to bond. What we are doing is not just a fishing trip, it’s building that bond and the camaraderie that they had back in Vietnam or Desert Storm, Desert Shield, or the Iraq War, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, pick one. So we really don’t want to get too big, we are happy where we are, we just maybe want to do a couple more trips a year to get more veterans out.
What has been the hardest or most challenging aspect of running Hookin Veteran? Spreading the message about Hookin Veterans that it’s not just a fishing trip. It’s not. Tyler says, “Catching a fish is just a bonus.” It’s bout building that bond and the camaraderie. The hardest thing to sell to anybody and to pitch to anybody that wants to donate, is that it’s not just fishing trips. We’re providing a talk therapy for these guys and putting them in an environment that’s safe, calm, and relaing, to tell their stories, to feel better about who they are and what they’ve done. That it’s ok, they are not the only ones, they aren’t alone, and that we are here for them.
On the flip side, what is the most rewarding part about running this organization? Saturday night, Saturday night when all the guys are there and you’re at the award ceremony and you don’t even see them as a Vietnam Veteran anymore. They are wearing their hat, but you just see them as a young kid. You see their smiles and their laughs, their joking, and they’re just a totally different person than who they were when they showed up. You see that transformation just after a mere 72 hours of being around like minded veterans that have been there, done that, and their whole demeanor changes and they thank you and they give you a hug and say, “Everythng that you’ve done for us, we don’t deserve.” They are the most humble people I’ve ever met, the most humble veterans, they thank us for not just Hooking Veterans but for giving back to them. They are an amazing generation of males and females out there that were in Vietname and Desert Storm, Desert Shield, they’re the same way. Those guys are the same way, just so humble and grateful. And that’s why we continue to do what we do.
Was there any trip or any veteran that stood out during any of your trips? Last February’s trip, we had a veteran; we started doing testimonials and recording them basically just aying, “hey, how would you consider this tri theraputic in ways you traditionally couldn’t find? How has this trip mde an impact on your life, what has this trip meant to you?” So just a couple of simple questions. One of the veterans literally said if we didn’t call him when we did and bok him on this trip with his dog, he wouldn’t be here. He said this trip gave him something to look forward to, and he said, “i wouldn’t be here today if you guys didn’t call me when you did and put me on this trip.” He said it with a cold dead stone face, he was dead serious. Those invisible scars you can’t see and those are the important ones to target because, well, it’s not 22 a day anymore. It’s like 16 or so, but it’s still too many. hat we do brings job, it gives them a sense of purpose and something to look forward to. Once they come on these trips, we try to stay in touch with every one of them, especially these guys that say, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for this.
What cn the community do aside from just donating to the cause? Palm Coast is a very unique city, I’ve been here for almost 20 years. I worked for the city for about seven years. I worked for the City while still serving in the National Guard and the city was very supportive of veterans. I do a comedy show, last year it was at Club 51, but we do a comedy show at the end of October to raise money. It went really well. The hurricane didn’t help, a lot of other events got pushed on top of mine, so we didn’t make as much money, actually we didn’t really make any, we pretty much broke even. But we got the word out there to another 400 people, and we are going to do it again this coming year. I’d like to do more fundraisers here in town because the community is fantastic here, many of them are veterans. Getting the word out there is paramount for Hookin Veterans. We are trying to get all of the people in Palm Coast to know who we are, what we’re doing and that we are operating in the City’s backyard.
To find out more about Hookin Veterans, visit their website here.
