ARLINGTON — Several years ago, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Jesse Scott was volunteering at Fort Lewis, helping members of the military wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan tie fishing flies for physical therapy.
Then he met Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Johnson, who only had one arm that worked after a s
niper’s bullet in Iraq left him with nerve damage.
A career military man and a Vietnam veteran, Scott, 79, worked with Johnson for a year to create a device in his garage that Johnson could use to tie flies with just his left arm. The result was the Evergreen Hand, named after the Evergreen Fly Fishing Club in Everett, which combines magnetic tools with a typical fly tying vise.
So far, Scott has made about 40 copies and handed them out to groups across the country and the five provinces of Canada. He plans to make 100 more to hand out at military hospitals and other places for use by injured veterans and for stroke victims and the like.
Scott has worked with Project Healing Waters, which uses fly fishing to help in the physical and emotional rehabilitation of people in the military, to let people know about the device. He said that Norm Norlander of Kelso, who sells the Norlander vise for tying flies, has offered to provide free materials for the Evergreen Hand.
“I’ve got orders for about eight (more) of them already,” Scott said. “I’ll simply produce them and mail them out.”
Scott, who’s story was told in The Herald on Memorial Day in 2009, reports that Johnson’s bad arm is now working again and he is serving another tour of duty in Iraq.
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