FISH friends: Real winners of this golf tourney are veterans and military families

Ear-splitting insults replaced the hushed tones of a typical golf tournament on June 17 at Falcon Lakes Golf Club in Basehor.

“My third-grade daughter can swing better than that,” a drill instructor yelled at a golfer on the putting green.

But the golfers were undaunted. This tournament drew 160 golfers who signed up to be yelled at, weighed down by 50 pounds of body armor and challenged to use an air cannon to tee off.

It was not a typical golf tournament.

This was the 11th annual Combat Golf Tournament, a fundraiser for Friends in Service of Heroes (FISH), and it was the largest tournament to date.

The mission of FISH, an Olathe nonprofit, is to help those who serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

“This is one of the most rewarding golf tournaments,” said Kenny Kopta, 63, from Olathe.

Kopta plays every year as a way to honor veterans like his dad, who served in the U.S. Army.

“FISH helps veterans across the community who need hope and a hand up,” said Kopta, who admits he’s not a good golfer. “I never win but it’s fun.”

Despite the unusual obstacles, winning is still based on low scores. But the real winners aren’t the golfers. The winners are the veterans and military families FISH serves such as Jeff Mason, 37, a U.S. Marine from Wichita, Kansas. Mason served two tours of duty in Iraq.

During the opening ceremony of the tournament, FISH presented Mason with a service dog, a yellow Labrador retriever named Doc. Mason is the 42nd recipient of a service dog since FISH incorporated as a nonprofit in 2013.

Doc is trained to sense the anxiety Mason may feel in tight spaces in public.

“The dog will begin pulling on the leash and circling to remove the veteran from the stress,” explained Paul Chapa, founder of FISH.

At home, the dog may interrupt nightmares if a veteran begins thrashing in bed.

The tournament’s obstacles — like wearing a flak jacket and a helmet — are designed to help civilians better understand what the troops endure.

Swinging a golf club wearing body armor “limits your mobility,” said David Copeland of Chillicothe, Missouri: “You can’t get a full swing.”

At the eighth hole, golfers threw a rubber hand grenade and played their ball from where the grenade landed.

“The grenade isn’t round and it can bounce anywhere,” Chapa said.

The lesson here is that what happens in combat may not be so much a matter of skill as luck.

Sometimes a veteran may wonder, “Did my service matter?” said Rick “Doc” Pustka of Lenexa.

Pustka, who has volunteered with the nonprofit since 2019, served as a U.S. Marine corpsman in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.

“I had survivor’s guilt and didn’t talk about my service until FISH,” he said. “FISH cares.”

As a tribute to Pustka’s service, Mason’s dog was named Doc.

“What I like about FISH is that we serve veterans of all wars from all branches of the service,” he said.

Service dogs are just one way FISH fulfills its mission.

Help is provided to veterans at no cost and can include meals, power mobility scooters, all-terrain wheelchairs, car repairs, hospital beds and holiday assistance.

But FISH’s involvement doesn’t end once a need is met.

“The people we support and help, we do life with,” Chapa said. “They become part of the FISH family.”

Friends in Service of Heroes (FISH) is based in Olathe at 122 Water St., Suite B. For more information, go to friendsinserviceofheroes.org or call 913-481-5060.