Project Healing Waters, and a group of fly-fishing friends, helped Kyle Cone find a new life as a PHW volunteer and professional fly-fishing guide. (Kyle Cone photo)
February 17, 2024
By Chris Dolnack
"All I need you to do is just suck a little less for me on this next cast, okay?” I had just met our guide Kyle Cone about 30 minutes prior and he was already busting our chops just as much as my two buddies and I were busting on each other. At that moment, I knew that Kyle and I would be fast friends.
We caught a lot of football-shaped rainbows over the next day and a half while fishing with Frog Hollow Fly Fishing on the Chestatee River in northern Georgia. I still can’t remember laughing so much on a fishing trip. Cone is fishy, and funny, as hell. However, it’s Cone’s journey from a typical suburban teenager to becoming a top fly-fishing guide that I found compelling.
Cone was born and raised just outside of Atlanta. He played sports and grew up fishing as a youngster and started hunting in middle school, catching his first fish, a bluegill, on Lake Lanier when he was three years old. Cone’s paternal grandfather built one of the first houses on Lake Lanier back in the early 1950s, and fishing was a big part of his upbringing. It became an important part of his adult life as well, and fishing likely saved his life.
A Call to Duty Cone says his family has a long history of military service . “Everybody in my family served. My uncle fought in World War II on a U.S. Navy ship. My grandfather was in the army. My father was in the army. My mom’s side of the family all served in the navy. So, it kind of seemed natural that I would follow in their footsteps.”
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Cone’s pathway to enlistment wasn’t without its challenges.
Kyle Cone enlisted in the Marine Corps when he was still in high school. (Kyle Cone photo) “I was an average student in high school. I think the combination of not really being sure about going to college, or what path to take, along with feeling a calling to serve my country, especially in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, led me to enlist. And there was just something about the Marine Corps that appealed to me. The Few, The Proud. There’s very few Marines compared to the rest of the armed forces. And they just seemed to fit kind of my personality. Like if you’re going to enlist, you might as well serve with the best. There was just something about the Marines.”
Cone had to have his parents sign his enlistment papers because at the time he was just 17 years old.
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“By my senior year of high school, I spent most of my time on the water, in the woods, or chasing girls, so, my Marine recruiter stayed in close touch with me and even came to my graduation to make sure I walked across that stage. I left for boot camp at Parris Island a week after I graduated high school while everybody else was spending the summer partying.”
Cone arrived at Parris Island on June 16, 2003, and graduated from boot camp on September 11, 2003, the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Following boot camp Cone was sent to artillery school at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, and then was assigned to the 11th Marines at Camp Pendleton outside San Diego, California.
Shortly after arriving at the 11th Marines, Cone received deployment orders to Iraq. His career as a Marine artilleryman was short-lived, as upon arrival at Camp Ramadi on the Euphrates River in Iraq he was assigned as a .50 caliber machine gunner on a Humvee.
“Our zone of patrol was west toward Jordan and Syria in Anbar Province. It was a very dangerous place at that time. We were in heavy contact every day. You never had a day where you didn’t get mortared or hit with RPGs. It was a time man . . . it was a time.”
Ambushed in Ramadi On November 2, 2004, Cone was manning his machine gun in the lead vehicle of a six Humvee QRF Team (quick reaction force) to assist Camp Blue Diamond, just across the Euphrates River. It was a route that the Marines based in Camp Ramadi had traveled many times.
As the column passed a small outdoor market there was a loud concussion and Cone was slammed against the gun turret wall. Everything went into slow motion and Cone’s ears were ringing. A few seconds passed before Cone was tapped on his leg by his staff sergeant who was riding shotgun. This was Cone’s signal to unleash hell with his machine gun. The convoy made it out of this IED attack, luckily with only vehicle damage. The lead vehicle Cone was in had run over the IED and it detonated between Cone’s Humvee and the one following his lead vehicle.
Cone received a Certificate of Commendation from the Marine Corps for engaging the enemy with his machine gun and allowing the Marines in his column to dismount and suppress the enemy.
Approximately a week later he was traveling at night along the same route on a divided highway with a sand median. Cone’s column was traveling east, and he recalls that quite a few houses along the highway still had their lights on. That is, until the column began making a U-turn across the median to head back west. All the house lights shut off simultaneously, as if someone flipped a breaker for the entire village, then immediately there was a loud explosion as an IED was detonated.
Cone served combat missions in Iraq, suffered at least one traumatic brain injury, and a decade later was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. (Kyle Cone photo) Unbeknownst to Cone, he suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the first IED incident. However, the combat tempo at the time didn’t allow for any down time. There was always another combat mission. Only those with significant physical injuries were taken out of the fight. Because at the time, no one really knew much about the effect of multiple concussions and TBIs.
Cone came home after his 2007 discharge with some mental health issues that wouldn’t fully surface for nearly a decade. “You don’t really realize you have those issues, and it took a decade before those problems boiled to the surface to where it became major issue. By this time, I was married, and we just found out we were pregnant. It was a happy time, yet after a decade of swallowing that stuff down, it came to a head. I was contemplating suicide and ended up checking myself into the VA. It wasn’t a solo effort by any means. If it wasn’t for my wife Mariah, I probably wouldn’t be here. I’m thankful that we met, and married her after my military service was over.”
“I think one of the biggest changes coming back is that I went into a withdrawal. I didn’t hang out with my friends. I stayed home, I went to work, I didn’t hang out with anybody. I just wanted to be alone. Our families said that I was like a ghost because nobody ever saw me. I never went to family functions, didn’t go to parties. It was just too much. Too many people. Too much noise. It was just too much. It was right at that time when I felt a lot of anxiety and depression and began having thoughts of suicide. All this stuff was really boiling to a head. Going to the VA helped pull me out of that darkness.”
The Turning Point While Cone was receiving treatment for PTSD at the Oakwood, Georgia VA he learned about Project Healing Waters (PHW).
“I was in my early 30s and I’m the youngest guy in the room, by far, and didn’t think I had that much in common with the others. The Vietnam guys had a lot in common. The Korean guys had a lot in common. While we all experienced combat and the resulting PTSD, my war was different from theirs. I just didn’t feel the same camaraderie initially.”
One of the participants introduced Cone to Kenny Simmons at Frog Hollow Fly Fishing on the Chestatee River.
“Driving up to Frog Hollow solo wasn’t easy for me to do, to meet these total strangers. But it was the best thing that I ever did. Because that literally was the start of where I am today. I met Kenny Simmons and Jim Long, and I met all these dudes my age, fellow Marines from Iraq and Afghanistan. We were all at the same basic fly-fishing skill level.
Once I became pretty proficient, I found it came very naturally to me. And at that point, I was just thirsting for more knowledge. Kenny had FFI casting instructors come in and work with us. And it was just what I needed. It was exactly what I needed. Fly fishing saved my life.”
Cone went on to become a PHW volunteer, and then a professional guide. He now works for over half a dozen lodges and shops on the Soque and Chestatee Rivers in northern Georgia, including Alpharetta Outfitters, Bowman Flyfishing, Fern Valley on the Soque, and Frog Hollow Fly Fishing.
Project Healing Waters Project Healing Waters (PHW) is a Department of Defense/Veterans Administration-sponsored volunteer-run program that serves more than 200 communities nationwide. (Cameron Cushman photo) Project Healing Waters (PHW) is a Department of Defense/Veterans Administration-sponsored volunteer-run program that serves more than 200 communities nationwide. Much more than a one-day fly-fishing trip, PHW provides basic fly-fishing, fly-casting, fly-tying, and rod-building classes for participants whose skills range from beginners who have never fished before, to those with prior fly-fishing and tying experience. All fly-fishing and fly-tying equipment is provided to the participants at no cost. Fishing trips, both one-day and multi-day, are also provided free of charge to participants.
For many participants, like combat veteran Kyle Cone, the socialization and camaraderie of the classes are just as important, or perhaps more important, than the fishing. To become involved with Project Healing Waters, as a volunteer or a participant, visit their website at projecthealingwaters.org.
Guide Life Cone has been guiding full time for the last seven years and has had some recent changes in his life that have put him on a dual career path that combines his love for fly fishing and hunting, while giving him more time with his family.
“I can now say I split my time between the water and the woods as I was recently hired as a part-time wildlife technician by the Georgia Division of Natural Resources. Who knows if a decade from now I will be able or be willing to row a boat seven days a week, so this an opportunity that just came at the right time.
Cone says fly fishing helped save his life. (Kyle Cone photo) “I love guiding, and I love fly fishing, especially during March, April, May, June, and even in early July. But, if I don’t put a day off on my calendar, I’ll get booked seven days a week. My mentality is you know, when the phone’s ringing, you got to take the trip because when that phone’s not ringing, there’s not a whole lot you can do to make it rain, especially in the South when it’s almost 100 degrees outside. Nobody wants to go fishing then and I don’t blame them.
“I don’t want to take any off days but if I let my calendar get booked up like that, I could go a couple days without seeing my daughter. So, the DNR job opportunity was just the perfect part-time job because now I’ll just be guiding four days a week.
“I work on a 27,000-acre wildlife management area where my most recent assignment was doing bear route surveys. I’m hiking through the mountains hanging bear bait stations, and then we’re going to check them five days from now to generate a bear population survey. I might be doing that one day and then I’m on the bush hog or planting food plots. It’s exciting to help manage our public lands so that the next generation has someplace to hunt and fish.”
To book an outing with Kyle Cone, message him on Instagram @kyle_the_crocodile_ or email him at kcone59@gmail.com .
Chris Dolnack grew up fly fishing in Pennsylvania and has fished throughout North America. He is a writer and licensed fly-fishing guide who lives in the Litchfield Hills of northwest Connecticut. His previous work has appeared in Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, and the April-May 2023 issue of Fly Fisherman.
