Hooks and Knots and a Trail of Dots

I like to play a game I call “Connect the Dots.” I usually do it with news articles that appear unrelated at first, but which do have a connection when viewed from a different perspective. Here’s a string of dots that stretches around the world, from Vietnam to Baghdad to the United States, and twice to south-central Pennsylvania.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing has announced the five finalists in its National Fly Tying Competition. These finalists will be invited to the International Fly Tying Symposium Nov. 11-12 in Lancaster, PA.

While attending the two-day symposium, the finalists will demonstrate their fly tying skills at the PHWFF booth. They will also have the opportunity to attend the many fly fishing programs and fly tying demonstrations offered during the event. At the close of the symposium, the overall winners will be announced at an awards ceremony.

While a member of ground forces support at Camp Victory in Iraq, Joel Stewart, then a Navy Lieutenant Commander, started the Baghdad Anglers Club and School of Fly Fishing, giving troops an opportunity to fish in the compound’s many man-made lakes during their downtime. Stewart, now a Captain, is a great friend and supporter of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

The finalists are: Jeremy Bristol, Syracuse Program, Northern New York Region; Trent Myer, Ft. Drum Program, Northern New York Region; Robert Fletcher, Denver Program, Rocky Mountain South Region; Joe Jackson, Indianapolis Program, Midwest Region; and Son Tao, Indianapolis Program, Midwest Region. The list of finalists does not include any participants in our Greater Kansas City Program, but we congratulate all five and wish them the best at the symposium.

I didn’t even realize that there were dots to connect, until I saw the name Son Tao in the list of finalists. The name looked familiar and, as I scratched my head, I tried to remember why (when you reach my age, you’ll understand). After a while the connection came to me. But let’s start at the beginning.

From his book “A Fly Rod in My Sea Bag,” Joel Stewart poses with his catch from a Camp Victory lake in Baghdad.

Several years ago – this would have been in 2005 (remember that year, because it adds a couple of dots to this story) – I read an article in Field & Stream about a fishing club formed among ground forces at Camp Victory in Baghdad, in the occupied palace of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The site included many man-made lakes that were stocked with carp and other native and exotic warm water species. One of the officers, a Navy Lieutenant Commander named Joel Stewart, had the good fortune of having packed a fly rod with him, and he spent his free time trying to attract these fish to his collection of flies.

As interest in Stewart’s pastime grew, the Baghdad Anglers Club and School of Fly Fishing was formed, and the Field & Stream article requested donations of fly fishing tackle for the group. At the time, I was working part-time at the Bass Pro Shop in Independence, and I and my co-workers in the Fly Shop were more than happy to use our employee discount to purchase equipment and send it to our troops in Iraq.

The BAC-SFF continued for the next five or six years. It even had a web site. As troops were moved out of Camp Victory, Stewart was reassigned although the club continued until Camp Victory was transitioned to the Iraqi government near the end of 2011.

An example of Son Tao’s fly tying ability. He is also a master photographer.

1^st Sgt. Son Tao of the Indianapolis Program is one of the five finalists in this year’s Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing National Fly Tying Competition. The finalists will attend the International Fly Tying Symposium in Lancaster, PA, this month, where the overall winners will be announced.

Fast forward a few years. Stewart is now a captain. The BAC-SFF lives on in a book he wrote about his experiences, titled “A Fly Rod in My Sea Bag,” published by Wordpress in 2012 (I gave my copy to one of our participants, and it’s making its way through our group), and in shirts, coffee cups and other items available from Cafepress. There are links to both Wordpress and Cafepress on Stewart’s blogspot, https://krazygoof.wordpress.com/ and a portion of the proceeds from all sales goes to Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, an organization founded by Capt. Ed Nicholson, USN-Ret., in – do you remember the year? – that’s right, it was 2005, the same year Stewart began the BAC-SFF.

Now, about Son Tao, one of the five finalists in this year’s PHWFF National Fly Tying Competition. He was born in the war-torn Vietnam, and his family fled to Malaysia when the Republic of Vietnam fell to the Communists. They settled in the United States where Son learned to fish, went to high school, joined the Army Reserves upon graduation and earned his electrical engineering degree from Lehigh University. After six years in the Army Reserves, he transitioned out of the military and into the private sector.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, however, Son rejoined the Army. Five combat deployments and two Purple Hearts later, he found out about fly tying, and then about Project Healing Waters. Ever the perfectionist, his very first fly looked like it was tied by a professional. Son, already an accomplished engineer, a decorated soldier and a master photographer, is now a world-class fly tyer.

All of this information I learned from an article I read online about 1^st Sgt. Son Tao. (http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/announcements/a-soldiers-way-by-joel-stewart/) The profile was written by Capt. Joel Stewart.

I recommend reading “A Fly Rod in My Sea Bag.” It’s a great story by a great American who had a job to do and made it better by helping the people around him. I also recommend reading “A Soldier’s Way.” It’s a great story about a great American, too, one who has benefitted from – and is now helping others benefit from – Project Healing Waters.

Oh, and one more dot in the link – when Son travels to the International Fly Tying Symposium in Lancaster, PA, this month, he’ll be returning home. Because when his family arrived in the United States, they were sponsored by a Mennonite family and settled in Lancaster County, PA.

Now you know what John Muir was talking about when he said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” In this case, it’s all tied together with fly line.