Medal of Honor Recipient Dies at 41 [Opinion]

We lost a national hero Thursday when Medal of Honor recipient and former Army Staff Sgt. Ron Shurer passed away.

In 2008, Shurer was a member of Special Operations Task Force during operation Enduring Freedom.

According to his citation for the nation’s highest military honor for gallantry in action, his unit was attacked by 200 enemy combatants in the Shok Valley.

Machine gun fire ripped into his troops as did rocket-propelled grenades.  Snipers also fired at the special forces troops. The enemy outnumbered our troops and freindly Afghan Forces better than 2 to 1.

Shurer, a medic, watched his fellow soliders be pinned down and cut off by the aggressors. The soliders were wounded and Shurer pressed forward to render medical treatment.

Along the way he cared for his fellow soliders who were badly wounded. He had to fight his way forward to help four more wounded soliders. Once on the scene, he carried four wounded soliders down a hill. Along the way down that the hill Shurer took enemy fire.

He used his body to shield the wounded and got them down the hill to a medical chopper to be evacuated. After the evacuation he stayed on the ground and joined the fight.

This was not your brief engagement.  It lasted a full six hours. Ron didn’t lose a single solider. Not one American warrior lost his life that day. This Army medic rose to the occasion and saved many lives by quick thinking and aggressive action.

Ron enlisted in the Army in 2002. His first effort to enlist was rejected on medical grounds. He wanted to serve after the 9-11-2001 attacks. So he tried again and was sworn in as a member of the U.S. Army.

After his honorable discharge he joined the Secret Service and served out of the Phoenix, Ariz., office. Later he was assigned to the White House detail.

This was a solider’s solider and when the soliders he served with needed him, he went above and beyond the call of duty to save them.

In addition to the Medal of Honor Ron also received the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and Army Commendation Medal. He also earned his Airborne Paratrooper Badge after completing Jump School.

He passed away as a result of lung cancer and is survived by his wife and two sons. He was a native of Alaska. America owes this young warrior and patriot a great debt of gratitude for his selfless service to his nation and the United States Army.