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By Max Jaeger
Brooklyn Daily
This fish tale is all true.
A group of about 50 veterans got to take a free trip aboard one of Sheepshead Bay’s charter fishing boats on July 16 — to unwind some post-combat stress, and reel in some seafood.
The heros boarded the Ranger VI boat and headed out to sea as part of a Veterans Administration Hospital program that helps vets cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. Many of the servicemen and servicewomen — whose ages ranged from the 30 to 80 — hadn’t stepped on a vessel in years.
“This is my first time on a fishing boat,” said Bay Ridge resident Hector Acevedo, who served in the Army for 28 years starting in 1974, and spent a year stationed on a ship in Kuwait.
The charter boat, which is a bit longer than a professional basketball court, set out from Sheepshead Bay’s Pier Four for a five-hour expedition that took the crew six miles out to sea. The water was choppy following a storm the previous evening, but skies cleared by noon and the sea grew calmer. Unfortunately, that was a little late for several unlucky landlubbers who stayed in the galley, green to the gills with seasickness.
“If you’re going to puke, do it over here — we need to attract more fish,” joked Bill Rizzo from his port-side fishing post.
Many of the vets said they weren’t avid fisherman but snapped at the chance to go on the high-seas adventure.
“I don’t get out much, but I’m working on that right now,” said Andres Dossantos, who served as a military policeman for seven years and did two tours in Iraq.
The hospital held annual outings like the fishing foray until about five years ago when sponsorship dried up, so the Gravesend Kiwanis Club raised nearly $3,000 to fund the fishing excursion, said Kiwanian Bill D’Emic, whose wife, Fran, is an administrator at the veterans hospital near Fort Hamilton in Bay Ridge.
A major sponsor who came along for the ride said that the decision to help fund the excursion was a no-brainer.
“There was no thinking about it — we put money on the table right away,” said Michael Rizzotto, who manages the Cusimano & Russo Funeral Home.
Now D’Emic is looking to fully revive the annual outings by organizing another one next year, he said.
Gazing back home toward the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Acevedo explained why the hospital’s program and trips like Wednesday’s jaunt are so important.
“When I came here, I was wild — everything was ugly to me, dark,” said Acevedo, who came to Fort Hamilton in 2010 after spending six years in an understaffed Veterans Administration hospital in Puerto Rico. “But now I’m much better. I’ve made lots of friends.”