Cove Veteran Handcrafts Sturdy Wooden Canes

A resident of the Cove, Fred Gutshall, 76, often receives compliments on the handcrafted canes he uses in public.

“They ask where did you buy it — and I say I made it,” he said. “They are just amazed.”

Canes like the one he uses are personally made using materials he finds in the woods, and can take up to two years to finish just one.

Gutshall files the wood to take out the notches and create a smooth surface for each cane.

“It takes a lot of work,” he said.

The hobby was inspired by a friend a decade ago, who also crafts and sells similar canes. Gutshall decided to create wooden canes for himself and also make them for his family. These canes, which he uses for support while walking, he prefers over the metal ones due to their strength.

“It is stronger than the metal canes they give you,” Gutshall said.

He still has the 50-year-old metal cane he got at the Clark Air Base Hospital in the Philippines when was injured in the Vietnam War.

Gutshall served in Vietnam from 1967-1968, when he was 19, and was a combat photographer. “I saw the war more personally than most — most people would see something happen, and they could walk away,” he said. “I couldn’t just walk away,” because he had to document what happened, he said.

Gutshall is able to see those pictures more vividly, and his photographic memory makes it even harder to forget.

“I can close my eyes and see it like I was there,” he said.

Gutshall also volunteered in Iraq from 2006-2007 when he was 60, where he worked for the U.S. Department of Defense.

“I drove a convoy truck delivering supplies to troops all over Iraq and into Kuwait,” he said. Gutshall said he is in a group called “Project Healing Waters”, which is for disabled veterans.

In order to qualify, a veteran has to be 10 percent disabled, and most of them are 60 percent or more.

Gushall has gone on about eight paid fishing trips in places such as Montana and Potter County in the state.

Potter County was great, because the whole community came out to recognize them, and there were kids along the sidewalks waving flags.

“All of us veterans had tears in our eyes, it was more than we could handle,” Gutshall said. When he came back from Vietnam, he and a lot of his fellow veterans and him were not treated well.

“We had stones thrown at us and all kinds of stuff happened,” he said.

Because of this, Gutshall did not talk about being in the service and hid it for about 30 years. “Most of my friends didn’t even know,” he said.

Gutshall said 9/11 changed people’s attitudes.

“They started realizing what happened in Vietnam and what happened to the veterans — they started changing their views,” he said.

At first when people recognized and thanked him for his service, he was dumbfounded, he said.