Ex-medic receives top medal
Ronald Shurer honored for braving heavy gunfire to save lives in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON — A former Army medic who received the nation’s highest military honor Monday for braving heavy gunfire to save lives in Afghanistan was rejected by the military the first time he tried to enlist.
“Boy that was a bad mistake. But they made up for it, right, ”President Donald Trump said in a formal White House ceremony where 250 people gathered to laud former Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer for his heroic actions in 2008 in a remote part of Afghanistan.
Shurer, a native of Fairbanks, Alaska, was a senior medical sergeant in the Special Forces on April 6, 2008, when his team encountered machine gun and sniper fire and rocketpropelled grenades from militants.
Shurer stabilized one soldier, then fought his way through a barrage of bullets and up a mountain to the lead members of the unit. There, he treated and stabilized four more soldiers. Shurer helped evacuate them, carrying and lowering the wounded down the steep mountainside, using his body to shield them from gunfire and shrapnel. After he put the wounded in an evacuation helicopter, Shurer went back up the mountain to fight.
First rejected by the military because of a medical condition, Shurer sought to enlist again a year after 9/11 and was accepted.
He was promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant in late 2006 and served with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan from late November 2007 to late May 2008. He was honorably discharged a year later.
Shurer lives in Burke, Va., with his wife, Miranda, and sons Cameron, 10, and Tyler, 7.