Wounded soldiers taking shot at R&R in El Campo
By SHANNON CRABTREE newsdesk@leader-news.com

A group of soldiers and marines will be landing in El Campo Friday for a few hours escape from the San Antonio hospital where they are recovering from war wounds.

Courtesy of Hunts for Heroes, the El Campo non-profit organization dedicated to providing outdoor recreational activities for war wounded, the group will be hunting teal and doves this weekend.

"This is our ninth event of the year, but our first hunt. This is our opening of the season," Founder Billy Hodges of El Campo said.

The event starts with a teal hunt early Saturday morning at the Weinheimer's Whistling Wings Hunting Lodge. That will be followed with a dove hunt in the general El Campo area.

The military personnel will leave

Brooke Army Medical Hospital in San Antonio Friday traveling to Castroville. From there, volunteer pilots will fly them to El Campo in three small planes.

"We'll split the guys up one on one with guides," Hodges said. "A lot of land owners have been extremely generous. Unfortunately for the farmers, we have a lot of uncut maize (in the

area). With that, the hunting ought to be spectacular.

Dinners and other activities are planned along with the hunts, but El Campo residents may see the recovering wounded in stores or restaurants.

"Be sure to shake their hand," Hodges said.

Monday the organization was expecting seven from the Army and an equal number of marines.

The El Campo Volunteer Fire De- partment works hand in hand with Hunts, said Hodges, who has been in the department 21 years.

"Ninety-nine percent of our volunteers are El Campo Volunteer Fire Department," he said.

And now the organization is picking up some corporate and local sponsorships.

"Several people in the community have done fantastic things for us. We also have a lot of guides - nearly all are professional guides or have experience in guiding. They all donate their services. Hunts has never had to pay for a hunt," Hodges said, adding the Louise-Hillje Chamber of Commerce membership recently provided enough funding to run all events during the hunting season.

Being a non-profit, the group is constantly in a state of fundraising while also soliciting sites for the wounded servicemen to hunt.

"I think we're the only 501c3 in the United States that wants to be out of business," Hodges said.

But even if the fighting ended today, thousands of wounded servicemen would still need care for months, possibly years.

"We've got a mission and a need," Hodges said. "There are a lot of people wanting to go."

The organization is considering the purchase of a bus with a wheelchair ramp.

"And we could always use another ranch to take a wounded soldier hunting on and we could always use gas money," Hodges said.

In the eight events so far this year, 72 servicemen have been taken on fishing trips and clay shoots around South Texas, Hodges said, adding the organization plans to be especially active when deer season gets under way.

"Sometimes we have repeat people, but we like to keep them rotated," he said, "We're not about the same people hunting and fishing time after time."

With each trip, however, BAMC regulations require a senior non-commissioned offi- cer escort other participants.

Staff Sgt. Brad Alexander, who lost a leg in the fighting, first attended a hunt as a participant and now serves as the BAMC liaison.

Hunts For Heroes was actually 35 years in the making, Hodges said, started by the insensitive comment of a young woman in an airport.

"It was 35 years ago in Atlanta," he said. "A young woman asked not to be seated by a guy from the military."

"I was going to make sure no soldier was treated like that again," said Hodges, himself a Vietnam era serviceman in the U.S. Army and the Texas National Guard from 1971 to 1979.

Now the group has been active for almost two years.

"I'm having a blast doing it," Hodges said. "These kids, they're so fun. I never had any boys so I call them my kids."

Hunts for Heroes is a nonprofit directly linked to the El Campo Volunteer Fire Department. Those wishing to donate can do so via Hunts for Heroes, P.O. Box 1328, El Campo, Texas 77437; or through the fire department by designating the dollars for the program.