Episode 49: Francis "Fitz" Fitzgerald Combat to Conservation

Less than a dozen pages into Combat to Conservation, I felt like I had known Francis "Fitz" Fitzgerald my entire life. His writing style and way with words draped a familiar calmness over me that I experienced growing up in the Midwest as a kid of the 80s. Fitz is a quarter century older than I am but he embodies the same qualities of "the good neighbors" of my youth and I knew I had made a new friend before ever speaking to him.

Born in Rochester Minnesota on January 13th, 1951, Fitzgerald grew up in the country and as a teen, became enamored with nature and the outdoors.  At 15, he harvested his first whitetail deer with an Indian recurve bow. The eloquence and respect that he displayed telling that short story from a chapter appropriately titled "The Hunt" instantly brought to mind memories of my first bow kill and I couldn't put the book down.  

A short read of just over 150 pages, Combat to Conversation doesn't take long to pick up steam as Fitz enlists in the Marines and is off to the jungles and rice patties of Vietnam. In "The Hunt II", the 19 year old marine comes face to face with the darkest parts of war when he must choose between his own life and that of a young Viet Kong soldier. Again, the delicacy of his words to describe a situation that most of us will never have to go through are hard to describe unless you read them for yourself. 

His military career would essentially come to an end just a few short months later just west of Da Nang. Like the scene we have all seen play out in the movies, the worst case unfolded as his company was ambushed on a bridge under the cover of darkness. The blast lit up the evening sky as Fitz lay on his back with enemy fire closing in on his dazed and injured body. Thankfully able to radio for backup, his platoon escaped without casualties but Fitzgerald would begin the road to recovery that is some ways still continues to this day.

Honorably discharged in June of 1971, he was off to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to pursue his passion of working in conservation. He was standing on the brink of securing his dream job in the fall of 1975 when life threw him another curve ball, one he literally couldn't see coming. The blast on the bridge had cost him his sight in one eye, yet he had passed all the necessary tests to that point and was soon to be hired as full-time game warden for the state of Minnesota. Mentioning the injury in casual conversation with his potential supervisor, he knew he'd lost the opportunity of a lifetime and would be disqualified from the position.

Having to take a different job outside his field, it would be close to two decades before he would finally reconnect with his love of the outdoors. While successful, the toll that career had taken on Fitz and his family led to a divorce in the mid-80s and he knew it was time for a change. That change came in Ely Minnesota, just miles from the Canadian border. The call of the wild was drawing him there for a new start, purchasing a resort and finding love again, but also finding healing from what is now commonly known as PTSD through time spent in the outdoors.

I could go on for hours about this book, this podcast and the remarkable story and man responsible for them. But I want to leave that discovery to you, our listeners and also invite you to purchase his book, Combat to Conservation, A Marine's Journey through Darkness into Nature's Light on Amazon. You will not regret either one and I cannot thank Fitz enough for his humility, honesty and vulnerability in sharing his story. There isn't

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