Published on June 1st, 2022 | by Paddleworld
One-line synopsis: Josiah Ching, Hawaiian native, angler and Iraq War veteran reflects on the hardships of life after war and how learning to fly fish saved his life
War stories are like clickbait, as a society, we want to ask the questions click the headlines but are we ready to hear the honest answers?
Josiah Ching, a Hawaiian native and Iraq war veteran, is ready to tell his story.
“Maybe a lot of people haven’t had that power, in a sense, you know…that literal feeling and ability every day to take a life or have it taken…There’s kind of no limit to what you might be willing to do to, I mean, to keep yourself alive or your friends alive.”
From shouldering the responsibility to do what it takes to survive, to shouldering the burden of then surviving, a soldier’s re-entry to the world they left behind is a lot to endure. Some can’t bear it. The lucky ones, like Josiah, find ways to cope. After the war, Josiah started fly fishing for bonefish and it saved his life.