Disabled Veteran’s Fishing Competition Held

posted on Jun 07 by Amelia in the Disability News, Veterans, Wheelchair Sports category

A fishing competition, the Brownsville Bass Fishing Tournament, was held this past weekend  in Brownsville, PA.  The fishing event pairs disabled veterans with a fisherman that go out on the river.  After a few hours, the veterans and fishermen bring in their catches to determine a winner for cash prizes.

Tom Strang, a Vietnam War veteran who served stateside in the submarine service, started the event in 2004.  He spent 7 years dealing with depression and wanting to sit at home after he took medication to help him sleep back in 1990 that caused him to sleepwalk and fall over the balcony railing, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.  Strang noted that it was common for a paralyzed person to want to just sit at home.

Strang was inspired after speaking to Jerry Baylor, a Vietnam War veteran, who was left a quadriplegic after a motorcycle accident in 1980.  He has been involved with wheelchair sports ever since and calls the competitions his “saving grace.”

He also realizes that not all paralyzed veterans are eager to get involved right away.

“I enjoy it myself. I like competition. But the most rewarding thing is when you have people like Tom (Strang) and a handful of others that told me I had inspired them to get going after they got hurt. That’s what this (fishing tournament) is all about,” Baylor said.

Strang runs the veterans group, Keystone Paralyzed Veterans of America, that supports this fishing tournament as well as many others including hunting, bowling, and billiards. This is his way of giving back.

“This is your way of life the rest of your life,” he said. “If we get one or two people a year doing these things, that’s rewarding. There’s no other way they could do any of these sports without the paralyzed veterans (group). You’re stuck, and they’re the ones that make it happen.”