Ronald J. Shurer

Ronald J. Shurer II (born 1978 or 1979) is a former United States Army special forces staff sergeant and medic. As a senior medical sergeant during the Battle of Shok Valley in April 2008, he and his team were attacked by an enemy force of more than 200 fighters. Shurer fought for more than an hour to reach part of his unit, killing several insurgents along the way. He was initially awarded a Silver Star for this action, but in 2016 The Pentagon upgraded this recognition to a Medal of Honor. He received the latter honor in a White House ceremony on October 1, 2018.

Early life and education
Shurer's parents were both in the United States Air Force when he was born, and much of his childhood was spent in the Tacoma, Washington area where his father was stationed at McChord Air Force Base. Shurer graduated from Rogers High School in Puyallup, Washington in 1997, and Washington State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 2001. At that point Shurer planned to enlist in the United States Marine Corps and was initially accepted into the Officer Candidate School but was later rejected when it was found he had pancreatitis caused by trauma from an earlier bicycle accident. Instead, he started working towards a master's degree at Washington State. He completed one year then enlisted in the United States Army from Spokane, Washington, in September 2002.

Military career
Shurer initially trained as an army medic and subsequently qualified to train as a Special Forces medic. This training included an internship in a hospital emergency room and completion of the national paramedic training program. He was promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant with the 3rd Special Forces Group on December 1, 2006. He was deployed with Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan from November 2007 to May 2008 in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Battle of Shok Valley
On April 6, 2008, the team was participating in a joint US-Afghan raid designed to kill or capture Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) in the Shok Valley of Nuristan Province of Afghanistan.

While moving through the valley, the team came under enemy machine gun, sniper and rocket-propelled grenade fire. The team suffered several casualties and became pinned down on a mountainside. To reach the first wounded soldier, who had received RPG shrapnel in his neck, Shurer ran through enemy fire. He continued up the mountain, returning fire for another hour and killing several insurgents to reach more wounded soldiers. He stabilized four more wounded soldiers and then received more enemy fire including a strike to his helmet and a wound to his arm. He then treated a soldier who lost a leg and continued aiding the injured and fighting the enemy for several more hours. He helped evacuate the wounded back down the mountain to a medevac helicopter, at times using his body as a shield against debris being dislodged from the cliff by the firefight.

The story of Shurer's actions that day are the subject of a chapter in the book No Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan.

Recognition
Shurer was initially awarded the Silver Star for his role in the operation. In 2016, the Pentagon conducted a review of all valor medals awarded since the 9/11 terror attacks and this resulted in Shurer's award being upgraded to the Medal of Honor. He received the award from President Donald Trump on October 1, 2018 in a ceremony at the White House.

Silver Star citation
"The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918 (amended by an act of July 25, 1963), takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Staff Sergeant Ronald J. Shurer, United States Army, for exceptionally valorous conduct in the face of the enemy of the United States as Medical Sergeant, Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 (ODA-3336), 3d Special Forces Group (Airborne), Special Operations Task Force – 33, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan, in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM on 6 April 2008. Sergeant Shurer heroically and with complete disregard for his own safety fought his way up a mountain in order to render aid and evacuate casualties from his ODA and Afghan Commandos. Sergeant Shurer was initially pinned at the base of a wadi by accurate Insurgent sniper, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG), small arms, and machine gun fire when he received communications that the forward assault element could not move due to a high volume of Insurgent fire and sustained multiple casualties. With disregard for his own safety, Sergeant Shurer took off through a hail of bullets and began scaling the rock face to get to the casualties. During initial movement to the base of the mountain he treated a teammate wounded by shrapnel to his neck from an RPG blast that blew him off his feet. Once his teammate received aid, he then fought several hundred meters under fire, for over an hour, killing multiple Insurgents, as he made his way to the besieged location. Under intense Insurgent fire, Sergeant Shurer reached the pinned down element of his ODA and immediately rendered aid to four critically wounded US and ten injured Commandos. He treated multiple life threatening gunshot wounds until additional teammates arrived. Sergeant Shurer courageously exposed himself by running 15 meters through heavy Insurgent fire to render aid to his seriously wounded Team Sergeant. Despite being hit in the helmet and wounded in the arm by Insurgent sniper fire, he immediately pulled his Team Sergeant to a covered position, and rendered aid as Insurgent rounds impacted inches from their location. Without hesitation, he moved back through heavy Insurgent fire to treat another teammate that suffered a traumatic amputation of his right leg from Insurgent sniper fire. Sergeant Shurer rendered life saving aid to four critically wounded casualties for more than five and a half hours. As the lone medic at the besieged location, and almost overrun and fighting against nearly 200 Insurgent fighters, Sergeant Shurer's bravery and poise under fire saved the lives of all wounded casualties under his care. He evacuated three critically wounded, non-ambulatory, teammates down a near vertical 60-foot cliff, despite being under heavy Insurgent fire, and falling debris from numerous danger-close air strikes. Sergeant Shurer ingeniously used a six foot length of nylon webbing to lower casualties, and physically shielded them from falling debris to ensure their safety. His actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military heroism and reflect distinct credit upon himself, Special Operations Task Force – 33, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan, Special Operations Command Central, and the United States Army."

Post-army
Shurer was honorably discharged in May 2009 and became a special agent in the Phoenix office of the United States Secret Service. He was later selected for the agency's Counter Assault Team and assigned to its Special Operations Division in Washington, D.C. He lives in Burke, Virginia, with his wife and two sons.