Specialist Rose once planned to become a doctor until a mortar injury in Iraq altered his future. Back home, volunteering with the Red Cross helped him rediscover purpose. Today, he continues his academic journey, pursuing a Ph.D.

“War is scary,” said Specialist (Spc) Rose, “but I liked what I was going to be doing. I wanted to help people, and this was a way to do that.”

Spc Rose grew up dirt poor in a small town in rural Oregon. Dreams of becoming a doctor and the cost of education ultimately drove him into military service in 2005. When he enlisted in the Army, he joined as a paramedic, knowing that he was very likely to be deployed, potentially to a combat zone.

In 2007, his unit deployed to Iraq. One day while performing the routine task of unloading a storage rail car, he was hit by a mortar. The mortar severely damaged his whole right side ─ femur, right eye, even parts of his brain. The pain was so intense that Spc. Rose blacked out. Several months later, he was in a wheelchair and a Wounded Transition Unit, with doctors telling him his chances of walking again were slim to none.

“I couldn’t shower or toilet on my own… my new lifestyle was hard,” recalled Spc Rose. “I was really angry… I felt like something had been stolen from me.”

His road to recovery was long and difficult. Spc Rose underwent four surgeries, spent two years in a wheelchair, and endured several hundred hours in rehabilitation. However, he says one of the biggest influences on his healing was a Red Crosser who worked out of a treatment facility at Fort Lewis in Washington State.

Debbie Dustman followed in her mother’s footsteps and began working for the Red Cross fresh out of college. Only instead of visiting troops in the jungles of Vietnam as a doughnut dolly, Debbie was sent to Fort Lewis where she and other Red Crossers provided the military community stationed there emergency communication, whole health programming and volunteer opportunities. Spc Rose was one of those volunteers.

“If I wasn’t actively receiving medical care, I was there,” said Rose with a laugh. “There’s no way I was useful. No possible way I benefited that office, but I felt like I was supposed to be there.”

Having a place to go proved critical, giving Rose a renewed sense of purpose during his recovery.

“Debbie was always nice to me,” Rose explained. “She always made me feel included and important. It was a large factor in my ability to get better.”

“I like to describe myself as bright and shiny,” said Debbie, “but I didn’t do anything special. I was just being me... it’s nice to know being me is enough.”

Spc. Rose was medically retired from the military in 2014, having regained the ability to walk, albeit with crutches. Today, he is pursuing higher education despite his disabilities. He walked across the stage at graduation last June with a bachelor’s degree in social science and is now enrolled in a graduate program studying history.

“I still want to get my PhD,” shared Rose.

And he still wears the Red Cross pin he received from Debbie for volunteering, clipped to his jacket pocket.

“I was angry and lost my purpose and the Red Cross helped me find it,” said Rose. “Debbie made me feel like I belong.”

The American Red Cross supports over 220,000 military families both in the U.S. and serving overseas. To support our mission, consider making a gift at redcross.org/saf.