Heroic vet set to enjoy local hunt
DAILY PRESS
KATHARHYNN HEIDELBERG
Jake Whipkey risked his life for his country, and paid the price. In 2007, while deployed in Samarra, Iraq, the U.S. Army private took machine gun fi re and had to be evacuated back to the States. Thanks to several surgeries on his arm, the avid bowhunter was able to resume his favored sport. Thanks to many generous hands, including area dentist and hunting outfitter Dan Reardon and a nonprofit foundation, Whipkey is soon to enjoy the hunt of a lifetime on the Rocking R Ranch, beneath the solemn peak of Lone Cone, outside of Norwood.
The hunt will be filmed by Bowsite.com’s sales manager Charlie Rehor. Bowsite’s members and others helped raise the money to pay for the Pennsylvania veteran’s trip to Rocking R, while Reardon is donating the guided hunt, hosted by Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation. “A lot of the (site) members are bowhunters and are veterans,” Rehor said Friday.
“There’s a lot of kinship to that 1 percent who do all our fighting these days. There’s an awful big need. A lot of them, through today’s modern armor, have survived, but they have physical and mental challenges they need to deal with.