FREMONT, Neb.—Cameron Stroeh performed dangerous missions in Iraq.
He said he did air insertions and took out high-value targets.
“Basically we go and snatch and grab people on the terrorist watch list,” the 20-year-old Fremont native and 2005 Fremont High graduate said of his missions.
“I wanted to try something new and adventurous. I wanted to get into law enforcement and thought the military would be a good start,” Stroeh said. “A lot of the stuff we do is all pretty hush-hush.”
Then everything changed for him on June 15.
“Everything was going pretty good. There were no incidents from my troop,” Stroeh said of his nearly seven months in the Baghdad area before June 15. “We were out on patrol and we were ambushed.”
He was hit by rifle fire while working as a cavalry scout on an eight-soldier team.
“We were in an area we had patrolled before,” Stroeh said. “They rolled up, got us cornered and ambushed us. That’s what we train for.”
He was shot in his right forearm and grazed on his right bicep. His knife stopped a bullet from injuring him more seriously.
“If that knife wouldn’t have been there, I would have been hit in the chest,” Stroeh said. “I still have the knife with the bullet in it.”
He had two initial surgeries while still in Baghdad. Then he was flown to Germany where he had four more surgeries.
Now, Stroeh is rehabilitating at Fort Bragg in North Carolina where he already has had two additional surgeries. More are possible.
He had a ninth surgery while visiting home at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Omaha.
“They put 11 inches of bone into my arm from my leg,” Stroeh said. “I knew I was going to make it, but the question was whether I’d be able to keep my arm.”
Now, he knows he’ll be able to keep his arm, but won’t be able to keep his enlistment.
“Here at Fort Bragg, I go to occupational therapy on my arm four times a week and physical therapy on my leg twice a week,” Stroeh said. “I might end up having one more surgery. I have a year of rehab, then I’ll be medically discharged. I didn’t want to make (the military) a career.”
He said he’d still like to get into law enforcement as long as he can pass the physical.
“I still would have enlisted even with what happened,” Stroeh said. “It’s a good opportunity to see things from a different view. It teaches you responsibility and you grow up a lot faster.”
While he is a veteran, he doesn’t think of himself as one.
“When I think of veterans, I think of an older person,” Stroeh said. “I don’t think of young guys.”
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Information from: Fremont Tribune,
