Local farm to host hunts for Wounded Warriors

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Eight U.S. Army servicemen and four U.S. Marines will spend four days this week on a local farm between Summerton and Rimini.

They won't be working a plow or harvesting crops; rather, they will be fulfilling a wish of hunting deer and duck.

"Featherhorn Farm between Summerton and Rimini has hosted the Wounded Warriors Hunt with help from the Wounded Warrior project for the past four years," said Jimmy Lee, one of the organizers.

"These are guys that have, somehow or another, been injured in combat," Lee noted. "Some of them have Purple Hearts; some of them have Bronze Stars. We take them out and hunt them from Wednesday through the weekend."

Deer hunting is on the agenda from Wednesday morning through Friday evening.

"We go duck hunting on Saturday," Lee said.

On Friday, the farm hosts a large party of about 200 people from throughout the state.

"It's a big supper to celebrate these guys," Lee said.

Lee said about five years ago he contacted a few friends in the U.S. Marines about taking soldiers wounded in combat on a hunting trip.

"I wanted to give back a little bit of something," he said. "I was not in any of the services, but I felt like I wanted to do something for the guys that go over there and risk their lives and give us the freedom to enjoy the farm and the outdoors. It's just kind of blown up from there."

Lee said the farm used to get Wounded Warriors through Cherry Point, a Marine base, when a friend of his was stationed there.

"Now, we're going through the Wounded Warrior Battalion East, which is in Camp Lejune, North Carolina," Lee said. "We get the Army servicemen from Fort Stewart, Georgia."

Lee said that the hunts are a labor of love between him and Maj. Chad Ardis.

"He's originally from Sumter and graduated with me from Laurence Manning Academy," Lee said. "He and I have put this together for the last four years. It's a really great time, and it's an honor to host these guys for these hunts."

Lee houses the Wounded Warriors in 10 cabins on the farm.

"Everyone stays at the farm," he said. "We go hunting every day. And they stay in the cabins."

He said while the warriors don't have to have licenses to hunt, he does have them approved through the state Department of Natural Resources each year.

"I have to send a letter to the Department of Natural Resources to tell them all who's coming, their ranks, their driver's license numbers, etc.," Lee said. "We register them all through DNR."