When Joshua Chapple was discharged from the U.S. Army two years ago, he had served our country well. He had first enlisted in the Florida National Guard, before serving a six-year stint as a Military Police Specialist in the Army, surviving a 15-month deployment to Camp Taji in Iraq and a stint in Ft. Hood, Texas.
But his release from the Army, the result of budgetary layoffs, turned out to be almost as distressing as his time in Iraq. Because of the cutbacks, the Army had fast-tracked him out of the service and the assistance he had been promised to enable a smooth transition back into civilian life was not forthcoming.
When Joshua, a 2003 Vero Beach High School graduate, returned to Indian River County with his wife Rebecca and their two young daughters, now 9 and 12, the family was homeless and at a loss where to go for help. Intensifying the situation, Joshua had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the horrors in Iraq.
“The Veterans Council [of Indian River County] helped us get back on our feet. They got us into a nice place, got us food, a vehicle; helped us get a fresh start here,” he says with profound gratitude.
“We were so inspired by how the community helped us get back on our feet,” agrees Rebecca. “We wanted to be able to do something.”
The couple has now established Boots 2 Hooks, a new nonprofit organization that will eventually provide free off-shore fishing trips to veterans, especially those suffering from PTSD and other life-changing disabilities.
“The treatment that was best for me was fishing; fishing really helped me manage my PTSD,” explains Joshua. “No matter how much stress or anxiety I had from deployment, fishing took everything away. When you’re out on the water on a nice clear flat day and it’s blue in the sky and blue in the water, it’s almost like God puts his arms around you and says ‘Everything is going to be OK.’”
“It seemed like the more he was able to get out there the less medication he needed, and some of those medications that he was receiving had terrible side effects,” adds Rebecca. “You wouldn’t believe how much more fishing helped him than the medicines they had him on.”
“Having something to do gives you an outlet; just like most people I’m sure,” says Joshua. “Fishing may not be for every veteran. My point is, find an outlet; whether it’s fishing, or playing golf or softball. Post-traumatic stress disorder is something you’re going to deal with for the rest of your life. It will affect me no matter what. There are some people who are able to manage it, and then there are others who are not; the suicide rates are high. We decided to try to offer other veterans something that helped me.”
To raise money for the new venture, Boots 2 Hooks is hosting an Inaugural Veterans Classic Men’s Slow-pitch Softball Tournament at Historic Dodgertown the weekend of Oct. 3-5, 2014.
“Half the proceeds will go to the Veterans Council; my way of saying thank-you to them,” says Joshua.
The event kicks off 6 p.m. Friday with a Home Run Derby at Holman Stadium, where everyone is invited to try hitting it out of the park – 10 tries for $40. In addition to the once-in-a-lifetime at-bat opportunity, the evening will have live music, food, raffles and free admission for the whole family.
“Anyone can enter the Home Run Derby. The main draw is that you get to hit at Holman Stadium field at Dodgertown. There are people who lived here for years, and I’m sure they dreamed of hitting at Holman Stadium like I did when I was a kid. I just thought it would be a fun time for them,” explains Joshua. “I’m an avid softball player. In Texas we had a Ft. Hood league, and I even played softball in Iraq. We had an all-dirt field in Iraq that we played on.”
The USSSA-sanctioned Men’s Slow-Pitch Softball Tournament Saturday and Sunday will have teams playing at Holman Stadium and the five fields around it. Teams of 10 or more players (veterans and non-veterans alike) are invited to enter the tournament at a cost of $350 per team.
Joshua, now employed as a full-time sales representative for Ameron Pest Control, is also very active with the Veterans Council.
“We’re trying to open up an outreach to provide assistance to younger veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom [Afghanistan],” he explains. “We’re trying to form a group of our generation of veterans; to get them out to start doing stuff.”
As a way of reaching out, the event will have numerous information booths about programs and services available to veterans.
“That’s the whole reason that we’re doing this. Because I had no idea when I got out of the different organizations that can help you – from helping you with food to transportation to the West Palm clinic to job sources,” says Joshua.
“We’re just trying to add to it with Boots 2 Hooks,” adds Rebecca. “Only people who knew how hard he struggled when he first got out can really see the incredible change. He didn’t like to be around people; even going to the grocery store he’d get anxiety. Or even just with our own kids; if we had a sleepover or a birthday party with too much going on. Not being able to sleep at night, being angry and not being able to talk about why he was angry.”
“Now it’s manageable,” says Joshua. “Working with other veterans, finding an outlet for myself and maintaining a regiment of time for myself was really the key to helping me cope with those things. I can go to larger places; even though I may still not like it too much, I’m able to go.”
Joshua and Rebecca hope to eventually raise sufficient funds to purchase a boat large enough to safely take out disabled veterans, including paraplegics. He is even developing a big-game fish fighting chair that could strap in an amputee.
“I remember the first time I brought up my first grouper I thought, oh my goodness, look at this thing! Those are some of the best times; just you and the water and the fish and some good friends. If I can just change one veteran the way that fishing helped change me coping with PTSD, I think we succeeded on a good mission.”
To participate or help sponsor the event, call 772-584-5734 or email boots2hooks@gmail.com.
Chapple had thought that his time in the military would be beneficial when finding a job, but he was sorely disappointed. “One of the hard things for us was jobs. You’ve got kids coming out of college having a hard time finding jobs, and a guy that went into the service at 18 years old and comes out as an MP and can’t do that anymore because of the disabilities I have,” he said. “I can’t be an officer any more. That’s all I knew.”
Despite his weapons training and expertise, he is ineligible for a career in law enforcement because of the PTSD diagnosis. “You have 28, 29-year-old men and women coming out of the service with PTSD,” said Joshua. “All they know to do is just sit at the house.
“The PTSD meetings are hard to socialize about,” says Joshua. “I clicked with Vietnam vets – we’re closer than everybody thought. They dealt with a whole different thing coming out. We’re celebrated when we come back from deployment, they weren’t. But, at the same time we can all get together and talk about our experiences in the service.”