CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - Waves rock her boat and the light gleams off the water. She hums a tune to herself. This is her idea of a perfect day. She casts her line and reels it back with a sense of peace in her mind. There is nowhere she would rather be.
Then she feels a bite. “Oh, it’s a fish,” she thinks. Then reality sets in. She’s still in the desert. There is no boat and there is no water, not even a puddle.
“I was casting the other night, and I hit a rock,” said Sgt. Melinda Hooper, a flight operations specialist with the 114th Aviation Regiment of the Arkansas National Guard, supporting Third Army/ U.S. Army Central. Forgetting where she was for a moment, she thought she had caught one.
“It felt like a fish biting, and I almost jerked. I had to stop myself,” she said.
Deployed to Kuwait, Hooper is on the Army National Guard’s fishing team. When not working at Camp Buehring’s airfield, she spends her afternoons casting into the desert. With an optimism that astonishes her fellow Soldiers, Hooper is happy to serve the Army even if that means fishing for rocks until her redeployment.
“She’s our fishing sergeant,” said Lt. Col. Karen Gattis, the 114th Aviation Reg. operations officer, with a smile.
Known to many of her fellow Soldiers as a great source of a good fishing story, Hooper often carries her fishing pole to work with her. Her pole has become a topic of many conversations, said Sgt. Joshua Schmidt, an aviation operations specialist with the 114th.
“Everyone has their fishing story,” said Hooper. “My whole family fishes,” she said.
Her parents bass fish professionally and her big brother is on the Bass Fishing League All-American, she said.
“I’m living through him right now,” said Hooper. “[My family’s] accomplishments keep me going.”
Although, the Guard takes Hooper away from her favorite sport, her drive to join was strong. After a huge ice storm hit her small hometown of Ben Lomond, Ark., one December, the Army National Guard swept in to save her community. Hooper knew she wanted to be a Guardsman after seeing the Soldiers save her community from 13 days of isolation and near disaster.
Joining the Guard allowed Hooper to serve not only her country, but her community as well. Putting her fishing tour on hold, Hooper came to Udairi Airfield in Buehring to help with airfield operations.
“You have to support each other,” said Hooper of her fellow Soldiers. “Everyone has their role. When I got the call to serve [in Kuwait] I knew I couldn’t leave them.”
Everyone who serves has put aside their dreams for a while, said Hopper.
“My dreams and goals will be there when I get back,” she said. “I look left and I look right and see that we’re all in this together.” Until she does go home next year, Hooper surrounds herself with what she loves – family and fishing. She covers her walls with photos of her family and posters of her favorite fish.
“You have to remember what’s important, what you’re going home to,” she said.
Hooper’s love for fishing runs deep; she finds peace on the water.
“I feel like God is speaking to me on the water,” she said. “When I was little, my parents would take me [fishing]. I don’t remember not holding a fishing pole.”
Serving in the National Guard’s fishing team and in the Army have similarities for Hooper.
“We share a passion,” said Hooper. “People in the Guard share a passion for their country and people on the fishing team share a passion for fishing.”
Both groups lean on one another for support, she said.
“You’ve got to have that teammate and that support system,” said Hooper.
“I’ve learned so much in the Guard,” she said. “I’ve learned that I can achieve anything I put my mind to. It gave me the confidence to follow through in college, fishing and life.”
Until she’s back on the water, Hooper can be found serving her country in Kuwait and “catching sand bass.”