Final mission: Vietnam veteran makes fishing trip near his Point Marion home
Alyssa Choiniere | Herald-Standard
Tony Pantalo (at right), Adjutant of Smithfield Fairchance American Legion Post 278, casts a line for Vietnam Veteran Robert Lincoln. Local veteran groups organized to give Lincoln his final wish of a fishing trip near his childhood home.
Alyssa Choiniere | Herald-Standard
Above: Vietnam veteran Robert Lincoln (right) gets ready to try on his new U.S. Marine Corps. hat after returning from a fishing trip on the Monongahela River in his hometown of Point Marion Wednesday. Local veterans groups organized to fulfill his final mission. Top: Tony Pantalo (at right), Adjutant of Smithfield Fairchance American Legion Post 278, casts a line for Lincoln. Local veteran groups organized to give Lincoln his final wish of a fishing trip near his childhood home.
Vietnam veteran Robert Lincoln hopes for a bite near the locks on the Monongahela River in Point Marion Wednesday, where local veterans groups organized to give him his final wish.
Vietnam veteran Robert Lincoln said his most successful fishing trip was near the boulder along the shore where he said he caught 100 catfish. He made a fishing trip with fellow veterans near his Point Marion home Wednesday, a fulfillment of his final wish.
Vietnam veteran Robert Lincoln gazes out at the scenery during a fishing trip on the Monongahela River in Point Marion Wednesday. Local veteran groups organized the trip, a fulfillment of his final wish.
Local veterans watch from the shoreline after launching a pontoon carrying Vietnam veteran Robert Lincoln for his final mission, to take one last fishing trip near his Point Marion home.
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Robert Lincoln gave a thumbs up to his men, several many years his junior, their arms straining for a final shove as they launched the vessel for his final mission.
His last tour in Vietnam was cut short in 1970. Three months into his deployment in northern Vietnam, an explosion rocked his platoon and injured Lincoln. Nearly 50 years later, he had only one mission left — to set out onto the Monongahela River near his childhood home in Point Marion for a fishing trip.
“He said before he departs this world, he’d like to go fishing one more time in the Mon River,” said Darryl Smith of Veterans for Veterans of Western Pennsylvania, who organized the trip. “I said, ‘Buddy, we’ll get you down there if we have to carry you down.”
Lincoln set off in a power wheelchair, strapped to the back of a pontoon. His deteriorating health almost thwarted his goal. It took several months and an organized effort between several local veteran groups to fulfill. His health problems began with the explosion and compounded with age. He had lost both his legs to diabetes and much of his vision and hearing.
A chilly breeze hit him as the boat nosed beyond the treeline. He broke into a cheery tune. He had made it.
“Did you hear me tell the story about the catfish?” he asked, referring to a conversation he had with state Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Uniontown who came by for a visit and to see Lincoln off.
He motioned to a large boulder protruding high just off the shore, the setting of one of his favorite fishing stories.
“We caught 100 fish. Maybe 101!” he said, his voice rising with excitement.
The river was much different in his younger days, he said, with a bustling local coal industry.
“Nobody believes me but I’ll tell you what, when I was 9 or 10 years old, it was all sulfur down here,” he said. “You couldn’t catch a fish unless you put it on the end of your pole.”
The pontoon neared the locks. Lincoln cast an imaginary line, then reeled it back in.
“I caught one!” he said with a laugh and danced to the tune he hummed.
Tony Pantalo, Adjutant of Smithfield Fairchance American Legion Post 278, secured a night crawler on a hook and passed the fishing pole to Lincoln.
“I’ll tell you when to give it a yank,” Pantalo said to Lincoln.
“Oh, I’ve got that part down,” Lincoln answered.
He basked in the mild late-summer sunlight, focusing more on the scenery than his fishing line. On the opposite end of the boat, Vietnam veterans told each other war stories, many focused on near-misses, happy endings and favorable comparisons. There was the one about a comrade who cheated death when a bullet hit his helmet. The troops in World War II must have had it so much worse, they said. Sure, they faced brutal conditions and mass casualties only to be met with ridicule back home. But it probably could have been worse, they reasoned.
Lincoln was feeling optimistic, too. The fish weren’t biting, but he wasn’t getting hung up on the details.
“Oh yeah, oh boy, I’ll tell ya. Any time I get a chance to see this,” Lincoln trailed off and motioned across the river.
The air had a hint of fall and the sun peeked around a dark cloud, casting a reflection of Point Marion on the water.
“I’ve caught my share of fish in my lifetime. It’s somebody else’s chance,” he said.
The pontoon edged back to the shore, where he was greeted by a welcoming party of veterans representing Vietnam Veterans of Fayette County, American Legion Post 278 and Rolling Thunder.
He stretched his arms wide with a twinkle in his eyes, showing he’d caught a big one and spun a yarn about his epic battle with the walleye.
“Hey, if you don’t come back with fish, you have to come back with stories,” he said.
He focused his attention forward.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” he began as he crossed from water to solid ground. “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
Back on shore, his fellow veterans grouped around him to hear his stories, adorn his wheelchair with Marine Corps. stickers and give him a few solid pats on the back.
“Hey, I just haul ’em in,” he said.
And with that, his final mission was accomplished.