Army shovels, ‘grenades,’ cannons — plus golf? All in good fun to help combat heroes

Teeing off across a water hazard is always tricky.

Landing a golf ball on the fairway or the green — anywhere but in the water — requires the right club, focus and skill.

Now try swinging a club while wearing some 50 pounds of additional weight: a flak jacket and a helmet.

That was one of the challenges facing golfers in the Combat Golf Tournament, an annual fundraiser for Friends in Service of Heroes (FISH), on the course at Falcon Lakes Golf Club in Basehor.

Friends in Service of Heroes is a national nonprofit based in Olathe founded in 2013. FISH operates on funds from donations, corporate sponsorships and its own fundraising efforts.

So how did body armor affect the players?

“It was so heavy,” said Ron Penn, a golfer from Olathe. “The flak jacket constrains movement and the helmet creates an echo.”

The challenge of the body armor is a reminder “of what our troops endure,” said Paul Chapa, the founder of FISH. “It helps those of us who have never served understand what it’s like to move with all that extra weight of equipment.”

Penn has participated in the tournament for three years and considers it his “No. 1 charity event. It’s a great cause.”

The cause is to help those who serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Proceeds from the tournament are used by FISH to provide veterans and their families with meals, car repairs, trained service dogs, power mobility scooters, all-terrain wheelchairs and other kinds of assistance.

Every hole in the Combat Golf Tournament had a challenge — from putting with an Army shovel, to tossing a golf ball grenade, to shooting a ball from an air cannon.

This was not a hushed-tones kind of golf tournament.

Players were sometimes raucous, joking with one another, poking fun at a poor shot. For example, when Jon Beck of Kansas City hit the golf ball straight into the water, he was penalized with five push-ups while still wearing the flak jacket and helmet.

And in this tournament, the score didn’t really matter.

Combat golf is “a lot of fun” said Mike Looney of Overland Park, He and Eric Carlson, also of Overland Park, have played every year since the first tournament in 2014. Both are retired from the U.S. Navy.

Carlson said he enjoys the tournament because “it’s a way to give back to veterans who have been injured or wounded,” and those who suffer from PTSD.

This year’s tournament was the seventh and the most successful. A record number of 144 golfers signed up and more than $38,000 was raised.

FISH is run entirely by volunteers, including Chapa, and operates without any government funding.

Without the red tape that often ties up government assistance, FISH can act quickly. Last year when Jerry Ingram of Overland Park realized he needed a hospital bed for his new apartment, FISH got it for him that day. Later, FISH provided him with a mobility scooter and lift chair.

Ingram, 93, served in World War II as tank commander in the Marines at Iwo Jimo at the age of 17. He attended the golf tournament because FISH doesn’t simply meet a need and move on.

“We do life with them,” Chapa said.

Ingram was part of the tournament’s opening ceremony. He was there because a younger veteran, Taran Swinney, 25, was being given a service dog, a silver Labrador named Jerry in honor of Ingram.

Swinney, a 2014 graduate of Raytown South High School, was deployed to Afghanistan twice and later struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Having a service dog makes him happy, Swinney said, and provides the kind of support he needs.

Another member of the FISH family, Max Deweese of Overland Park, also attended the tournament’s opening ceremony. Deweese, 99, a retired World War II Marine, wasn’t entered in this year’s tournament because he had another golf outing that afternoon.

Deweese played all 18 holes of the Combat Golf Tournament two years ago and describes himself as “99 and still swinging.”

Ingram, Deweese and all members of the FISH family help further the nonprofit’s mission.

“We tell those we help to ‘go FISHing’ — look for others who need our assistance and support,” Chapa said. “The people we help are those who will never ask for help.”

For more information: Fiends in Service of Heroes (FISH), 13902 W. 108th St., Lenexa, KS 66215, www.friendsinserviceofheroes.org, 913-481-5060.

This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Army shovels, ‘grenades,’ cannons — plus golf? All in good fun to help combat heroes."