Before the sun came up April 18 at Jordan Lake, 175 bass boats, each decorated with a yellow ribbon and an American flag and arranged in flights of red, white, and blue, held fast as their occupants awaited the 7:15 a.m. take-off from the New Hope Landing to begin the third Warriors on the Water event, a bass tournament celebrating the men and women who have served our country.
Each boat carried a volunteer boater who was taking a soldier fishing for the day. Some boaters came from as far away as Texas, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania to participate in the military celebration event conceived four years ago by three Desert Storm veterans, Hal Abshire, Greg Lahr and Bob Cunningham.
When the boaters and soldiers arrived in the morning, they were greeted by volunteers who offered them coffee and doughnuts. Then the boats slide into Jordan Lake’s waters.
At 6:45 a.m. a JROTC Color Guard marched along the dock. An invocation followed, then the singing of the National Anthem by Chief Warrant Officer 5 Charles King.
At 7 a.m., music blasted over the loudspeakers accompanied by the cry of “Let’s get ready to rumble!” Shortly thereafter, three female members of the Golden Knights, a world-famous demonstration and competition U.S. Army Parachute Team of 90 men and women stationed at Fort Bragg, dropped out of the sky from an airplane and slowly descended and landed at the back of designated bass boats to the cheers of onlookers.
Soon the first flight of boats took off, followed by subsequent flights. The participants found the bass fishing difficult at Jordan where the fish were more interested in bedding than biting. But the focus of this tournament wasn’t about the fishing but about the celebration of our military men and women.
Boater Anthony Adams of Raleigh expressed the feelings of many volunteers who participated in the event.
“This is just one little thing I can do to give back for what they do every day for us,” he said. “There’s no way we could really repay them.”
Sanford’s Cory Williams, attired in a red-white-and-blue shirt, and his military partner, George Frank of Fayetteville, won the tournament with 23-06 pounds of bass. Boater Richard Szczerbala of New Hope and Bobby Mathis of Georgia placed second with 15-09. Big-fish honors went to boater Jerry Clay of Asheboro and Roger Adkins of Fort Bragg with an 8-pound, 2-ounce bass.
After the weigh-in festivities, many volunteer boaters and soldiers from this year’s event wanted to sign up for next year’s celebration.
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