Uncommon Valor

For most of us, the thought of sustaining a serious injury in defense of our country would be more than sufficient to stay on the sidelines. But for lst Sgt. Brent Jurgersen, USA, two near-fatal injuries in Iraq still isn’t enough to keep him down.

He was even able to fulfill a promise he made to 390 men as their First Sergeant when they first arrived in Iraq: to personally lead them home. This took place in Schweinfurt, Germany in late February 2005, only three weeks after he woke from a coma.

Brent Jurgersen, 42, hails from Clinton, Iowa. Since joining the Army in 1989 he has lived throughout the United States and most recently in Germany .

In June of 2004, he was critically injured with a gunshot wound to his face during an ambush near Samarra. He survived a bullet wound that entered his mouth, shredded his tongue, and turned and went down his throat where it lodged, causing an arterial bleed. He was intubated and put on life support for several days.

A week later surgeons performed a tracheotomy.

After enduring four months of surgeries to his mouth and upper jaw in Germany, Jurgersen returned in October to Iraq and his troops. Then last January, while out on patrol scouting polling sites for Iraq's elections, he was injured a second time when the Humvee he was riding in was struck by two armor piercing rocket-propelled grenades. He sustained a skull fracture, shrapnel wounds and leg wounds so serious that his left leg had to be amputated above the knee.

Brent was flown to Walter Reed in January 2005 where, after emerging from a drug-induced coma, he has endured multiple operations including bone grafts from his good leg and hip to his jaw, as well as surgery on his finger. All this plus learning to walk with a prosthesis. First Sergeant Jurgersen and Karin plan on staying at Walter Reed for a year while he undergoes further surgeries and therapy, and are hoping to find a house to rent in late summer in Northern Virginia or Maryland.

Brent and Karin are private people who are more accustomed to giving than receiving. In the past, Karin was an American Red Cross case worker. Yet sometimes accepting assistance is a necessity in times of war. According to Jurgersen, “This war is nonprejudicial — I have not talked to anyone who has not needed some sort of assistance.” He adds, “ I don't know what I would have done without your organization and others that have helped us.”

That help came in the way of the rental car the Yellow Ribbon Fund provided for the Jurgersens after they endured three months at Walter Reed with no easy way to leave the base. According to Karin, “The car opened up a whole new life for us, giving us the opportunity to get back and forth to the hospital, go out and buy a suit or have a meal out…that was freedom.”

Last June the Yellow Ribbon Fund provided a hotel room at the Silver Spring Hilton for their daughter Cassandra and two of her friends who drove to D.C. from Iowa after Cassandra's college graduation.

For now, Brent is undergoing further treatment and rehabilitation. And what does the soft-spoken man his troops nicknamed “The Rock” hope to do when he recovers? Return to full-time military duties as soon as possible. This is a First Sergeant!

Editor’s note: In July, 1st Sergeant Jurgersen was selected for Sergeant Major and attendance to the Sergeant Major Academy. 1st Sergeant Jurgersen gave us permission to publish this story and the accompanying photographs.

*Pictures courtesy of James Leisinger