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When describing life-altering decisions
and brave moments of selflessness, Former Army Staff Sergeant and Medal of
Honor recipient Ronald Shurer speaks succinctly and matter-of-factly, as if his
actions were the most natural thing in the world. Why did he enlist after Sept.
11? It didn’t seem right not to, he replied. Why did he become a medic? To take
care of the troops.
What was going through his mind during a
mission gone wrong in Afghanistan? His first and only prayer was that his wife
and infant son would be OK if he died. And for the next several hours, he
focused on one thing at a time while caring for the soldiers being shot all
around him. Service is second nature for him.
Shurer was born on the anniversary of
the attacks on Pearl Harbor — Dec. 7, 1978, in Fairbanks, Alaska. His parents
met in the Air Force, and his father continued to serve while Shurer was
growing up. After graduating from Washington State University, Shurer applied
to join the Marines but was rejected due to an old injury. As President Donald Trump
noted during the Medal of Honor ceremony, “Boy, that was a bad mistake. But
they made up for it, right?”
Shurer was studying economics in
graduate school when terrorists hijacked four planes and killed thousands of
Americans on 9/11. The attack on American soil, reminiscent of the Japanese
assault he learned about as a child, inspired Shurer to reapply. In 2002, he
was accepted into the U.S. Army. He later became a Green Beret. Why join the
Special Forces? “It seem liked another challenge, another way to push, to do a
little bit more,” he said.
Shurer and his wife, Miranda, met online
in 2004. “We’ve been together ever since,” said Shurer simply. The pair was
married a year and half after they began dating, weeks before he deployed to Afghanistan.
It was during his second tour, in April 2008, that the harrowing battle
occurred.
“It started just like every other
mission,” said Shurer. Their job that day was to capture or kill targets of
Hezeb Islami al Gulbadin or HIG, a large faction of the anti-coalition militia
that operated in the Shok Valley of eastern Afghanistan. “Everybody (got) up
really early; we’d usually go out with 100 Afghan commandos and our team,
roughly about a dozen Americans. We got up on helicopters, flew 30, 45 minutes.
The helicopters flew away and it was very cold, very quiet. We were in a little
river valley just looking up at the mountains.”
The lead team of their group was working
its way up the mountain when they were attacked with guns and rocket-propelled
grenades. Shurer moved from the rear to the front and began to treat the
injured, returning fire when he could. “I was 100 percent convinced I was going
to die. It was six and a half hours of being shot at,” he said. “It was just a
series of moments … trying to figure out which one of the wounded guys needs
the most care. What’s the best thing I could be doing right now?”
One bullet went through his team
sergeant’s arm and hit Shurer on the helmet. “It felt like I got hit in the
head with a baseball bat,” he said. He was so covered in other’s people’s blood
he wasn’t sure if he was hurt. But his friend Dillon said he was alright and he
continued providing life-saving medical care. When he returned to base later
that night, he discovered a bullet had grazed his arm.
Many of the men were so injured they couldn’t
walk down the mountain. So Shurer and others wrapped nylon tubing under the arms
of the wounded and lowered them down a cliff. “All that time, bombs are still going
off,” he said. Eventually, all the men and the bodies of an Afghan interpreter
whom Shurer knew as CK and an Afghan commander were loaded onto the
helicopters. “We weren’t leaving them,” said Shurer.
About a month later, Shurer returned to
the States. Today, he is a Secret Service special agent. “It seemed like a good
way to continue to serve. I like the mission,” he said. In 2011, he and his
wife had a second son, Tyler Edris, whose middle name the real name of the Afghan
interpreter who was killed in action. “(CK’s) dream was to come to America and
to join the army,” said Shurer. “It was important to (Miranda and I) that a
little piece of him did make it over here.”
Shurer said his Catholic faith plays an
important role in his life and in his family’s life, especially since he was
diagnosed with lung cancer last March. “We’ve spent a lot more time with
(Father Robert C. Cilinski, pastor) since the diagnosis, just processing all
this,” he said. “He’s an important part of our family.” Shurer is undergoing
chemotherapy, but is able to work on the operations side of guarding the
president. “Now I make sure someone else is always protecting him,” he said.
Being chosen as a Medal of Honor recipient
came as a complete shock to the unassuming veteran. Shortly after the battle,
he and several of his teammates were awarded the Silver Star, the third highest
award for valor in combat. It was only a few months ago that he began to get
cryptic calls from the Pentagon. In September, he was called into the Oval Office
and told he would be receiving the Medal of Honor. Trump hung the blue ribbon
and golden star on his neck in front of his family, teammates and members of
the armed services at the White House Oct. 1.
“Cameron, Tyler, we stand in awe of you father’s
courage,” said Trump in his remarks. “He’s the best dad and role model two boys
could ever ask for.” As Shurer stood to applause, he looked stoically around
the room, and then gave a quick smile and wink to the boys in the front row.
