DURANGO, Colo.—When Erik Greer joined the Army at the tender age of 20, he felt he had found his life’s vocation. “I was set on a 20-year career in the military,” Greer said in an interview last week at the home of his sister, Ella Hawkins, east of Elmore’s Corner.
Two tours of Afghanistan and a Purple Heart later, that future isn’t in the cards for him. While the descendant of local homesteaders is now looking at a degree in business from Fort Lewis College, his desire to serve hasn’t been extinguished.
“I’d definitely continue in the Army despite the risks,” he said.
Instead, Greer, 26, related to the multigenerational Greer clan in southwest Colorado, must return to Fort Drum in upstate New York for seven to nine months in the Wounded Warrior Unit to prepare for discharge.
The Wounded Warrior Project is a nonprofit organization that provides services to severely wounded military people who are on their way to becoming civilians.
Greer, who enlisted in the Army in March 2004, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2006-07 and 2009-10 with Delta Company of the 132nd Infantry Battalion.
On the night of May 2, 2007, Greer was with his unit in the Narang Valley. He was dropping off to sleep when a rocket-propelled grenade screamed just above the swale in which he was lying and exploded. Almost immediately, the area was raked with AK-47 fire.
“I rolled over to get my equipment when a ricocheting bullet hit me in the left buttock,” Greer said. “I had my Forrest Gump (a reference to the movie by the same name) wound.
“I couldn’t feel my leg, but I crawled under a Humvee,” Greer said.
He was evacuated to Asadabad, about 10 miles from the Pakistan border, for treatment.
“The medics there told me I was lucky because the bullet just missed the femoral artery and stopped just short of my pelvis,” Greer said. “I was flown to Bagram Airfield, where I received a Purple Heart (medal), and then to Germany and finally to Fort Drum.”
Greer, who kept the misshapen bullet as a souvenir, remained at Fort Drum until January 2009, when his unit was deployed again to the same region in Afghanistan.
One day near the end of August, Greer was mounting a weapon in the turret of a Humvee parked on a slope when the brakes and transfer case failed. The vehicle rolled down the grade, coming to rest against a HESCO barrier, a multicelled steel frame that can be filled with rocks or sand as protection against enemy fire.
“I hit the back of my head and shoulder and was knocked out,” Greer said. “I pulled myself out, but with the adrenalin rush, I didn’t feel pain right away.”
Greer again was treated at Asadabad and then assigned to administrative and security duty. He remained there for three months until his unit’s deployment ended and it returned to Fort Drum.
Upon arriving at his home base, Greer was placed in a Wounded Warrior Unit while he is being treated for nerve damage in preparation for discharge.
Greer supports his left arm in a sling because of constant shoulder discomfort that overrides pain killers. He has no feeling in his left calf and feels only tingling in his foot and toes if he bumps the leg or something hits it.
“I have flashbacks about Afghanistan,” Greer said. “But they’re starting to come down through therapy.”
He also suffers depression and occasional blackouts in which he can’t recall immediate past events.
“The depression was pretty bad, but I’m pulling through it with the support of family members and counseling,” Greer said. “In the treatment for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), we try not to focus on the past, and we do a lot of vocational rehab to help prepare for finding a job.”
In seven to nine months, Greer expects to receive a medical discharge.
“I’m grounded more than before,” Greer said. “I’m planning on returning to La Plata County to study business at Fort Lewis College.”
He wants to join his father, Duane Greer, at his Superior Handiworks, a building and remodeling business. Erik Greer worked with his father in construction for eight months between high school and enlisting in the Army.
The experience in Afghanistan hasn’t soured Greer on the military.
“It definitely has its ups and downs,” Greer said. “But you learn to deal with one problem at a time and then move on.”
