LIVE OAK, Fla. — No sooner had John Hilliard arrived at Suwannee Lake on May 10 than he began trying to get his hands on a rod and reel.

“Oh shoot, I like to fish,” the 59-year-old Ohio native said. “I love to fish.

“But ain’t had the chance.”

The Navy veteran and three other military veterans got the opportunity Thursday thanks to the efforts of Gene McNeill, the Suwannee County administration and a helping hand from Anderson Columbia.

McNeill was working at PCS Phosphate, now Nutrien, in White Springs nearly 30 years ago when he began the push that led to Thursday’s outing.

While checking on the water situations at some of the lakes on the company’s property, McNeill came upon a car — with fishing poles — parked at the gate to a lake that had a no fishing sign posted.

Upon stopping to inform them that they couldn’t fish there, McNeill said a man was helping get his wife into a wheelchair, both likely in their 70s. The woman was undergoing kidney dialysis several times a week at the time.

“He said after dialysis, she always felt real bad so he’d bring her out there fishing and she really enjoyed that,” McNeill recalled, adding that the couple told him they had fished there previously, catching catfish.

“I told them that I was sorry but this was recirculated process water. We allow fishing over at Eagle Lake. He said, ‘Yeah, we’ve been over there but there’s nowhere she can fish in her wheelchair.’ Because of the slope, he couldn’t get her close enough to the water.”

That prompted action from McNeill.

He began a push that turned into McNeill Lake opening in the early 2000s with a pier that was handicap accessible.

Visits with David Lowe, a triple amputee from Tallahassee, at the VA Hospital in Lake City turned into fishing trips. Which turned into taking a group of the vets from the VA to the lake in the mid-2000s.

“It’s something I like to do,” McNeill said.

But recently, those trips stopped.

The pier at McNeill Lake was flooded and hasn’t been repaired.

The pier at Lake Montgomery, within walking distance of the VA Hospital, was condemned and torn down.

The pier at Suwannee Lake, though, was in great shape and perfect for the disabled veterans.

But there was still work to be done. The path leading to the pier was torn up by erosion. So McNeill reached out, with direction from Suwannee County Clerk of Court Barry Baker (an old coworker at PCS), to County Chairman Ricky Gamble.

With Anderson Columbia willing to donate millings to fix the path, Suwannee County’s road department paved it.

The fishing could resume.

“He needed our help and I told him I’d whatever we could to make it happen,” Gamble said. “It was a worthwhile project.”

It was a worthwhile trip for the four veterans who made it.

“Oh yeah,” Hilliard said about enjoying the morning outing. “They kept talking about it but I’ve been on antibiotics for so long and couldn’t get out here.

“But now that I had a chance to get out here, I was coming.”

McNeill added: “These recreational therapists will tell you that it’s really good for them. Just to get out and do anything. But even better when they actually catch some fish.”

Hilliard is proof of that. With temperatures nearing 90 degrees as the morning wore on, the big fish weren’t to be found. Instead, small brim were the catches of the day.

“They were little, but I don’t care,” Hilliard said. “It was fun just catching them.”