On fishing trip, veterans bond over their catch
Annual trip from Niantic is about camaraderie
Eighty-six-year-old John Lamb’s poem, handwritten on Sunday night about fishing, required one last addition.
“I haven’t typed it up yet so I’ve got to put this in it,” said Lamb, referring to the estimated 28-inch-long bluefish that he caught off his 6-foot6-inch rod in Long Island Sound late Monday afternoon.
Lamb, who described himself as a prolific poet, was one of about 40 veterans aboard the BlackHawk, a fishing vessel that operates out of Niantic that has teamed up with Northeast Saltwater Fishing Club to put on an annual fishing trip for veterans.
The vets fished The Race, essentially the entrance to the Long Island Sound, a mecca for fishing, particularly for bluefish, said Greg Dubrule, owner of BlackHawk. The area ranges from about 16 feet to 350 feet in depth.
The fishing trip gets bigger every year, according to the organizers. The vets left by bus Monday afternoon from the Rocky Hill Veterans’ Home, where many of them live, and were escorted by motorcycles the whole way to Niantic.
“Me and the loser,” Lamb proclaimed as he posed for a picture with his catch.
“Made my day,” he said about a minute later.
Organizers gave out trophies for categories such as “repeat offender” and “most patriotic,” which went to Lamb, who was wearing a jean jacket stitched with the words of the National Anthem on the back and an American flag.
It was coincidental that this year’s trip fell on Sept. 11, the 16th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Those on board remembered where they were and what they were doing 16 years ago.
Amarilis Torres, 30, the youngest veteran on board, was sitting in her high school Spanish class when the principal announced the news. She enlisted in the Army a few years later during her junior year as part of the deferred entry program, but said it was the fact that she didn’t want to go to college and her desire to travel the world that made her want to join. She served from 2004 to 2012.
Torres, who is the commander of the Rocky Hill Veterans of Foreign Wars post, first served in the Army, then the Connecticut Army National Guard. She worked in logistics and did two tours in Baghdad, Iraq. She got out in 2012 at the rank of sergeant because of her kids.
On the bus ride down, Rudy Robinson, 63, noted that there’s no better way to spend a day than with fellow vets, particularly in light of it being the anniversary of 9-11.
“I wouldn’t trade this for the world,” said Robinson, an Army vet.
Vets were able to take their catch home if they wanted, and Robinson was planning to fry up some bluefish with his family. Ken Hardy, an Army vet, was planning on donating a lot of the fish to local soup kitchens in the Middletown area where he goes to church.
Dubrule, the boat captain, provided a constant source of entertainment and encouragement, shouting down from the top deck.
“Back up, bud. Back up. There you go, we’re getting to be fishermen now!” he said at one point.
Longtime friends Raymond Michaud, 70, and Peter Troisi, 69, fish frequently together on Troisi’s 36-foot Sun Runner, which is moored in New London.
Troisi, who served in the Marines, and Michaud, who served in the Army, are practically inseparable.
“If I get a toothache, he takes me. We got married together,” Troisi said.
They said they were enjoying the day out on the water together and being among other vets.
“Veterans got taken for granted for so long,” said Troisi, who served during the Vietnam era.
At the end of the trip, as the sun was nearly set, Dubrule asked that everyone in board observe a moment of silence in honor of Navy Electronics Technician 2nd Class Petty Officer Dustin L. Doyon, of Suffield, one of 10 sailors who were killed aboard the destroyer USS John S. McCain last month.