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Janaury 7, 2013 - U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Krapels, 25, of Chosen Company, 2nd
Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat
Team, served with Chosen during the 173rd's previous deployment to
Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom X. After an
injury from machine gun fire, Krapels, a native of Sparta, N.J., had
more than 20 surgeries before returning to Chosen Company and
deploying with them again to Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt.
Michael Sword, TF 173 Public Affairs)
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AFGHANISTAN (1/15/2013) - No one ever plans to suffer an
injury when they join the military, and U.S. Army Sgt.
Michael Krapels was no different. Krapels, who is with
Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment,
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, had always wanted to
join the military, and after attending college at the
request of his parents, he enlisted in the Army on his
birthday, Oct. 7, 2008.
“I made a promise to my
parents that I would go to college first, so I did two years
at the University of Maine,” he said. “A friend went up
there to play football and I got accepted so we went up
there and roomed together.”
The intention was to
finish his college education, but a visit to the recruiter
by his best friend back home in Sparta, N.J., changed that
plan, and his life, forever.
“Halfway through my
sophomore year of college, my best friend from back home, we
had always talked about enlisting together, told me that he
had gone down and spoken to a recruiter and enlisted,”
Krapels recalled. “That started the ball rolling with me
wanting to go and later on that spring, a buddy of mine got
hurt in Helmand Province and that made it definite.”
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Once he left Sparta, his transition from civilian to
deployed soldier was a quick one. From Fort Benning Ga., for
his one station unit training and airborne school, to
Vicenza, Italy, home of 2nd Battalion and the 173rd ABCT, to
training and a mission readiness exercise, Krapels quickly
found himself high in the mountains of Afghanistan's Kunar
province by the winter of 2010.
Almost as quickly as
he arrived, Krapels left Afghanistan after machine gun fire
hit both of his legs, Jan. 14, 2010.
“One went
through my left ankle, one through my right calf, it cut my
Achilles,” Krapels said, listing just a few of the rounds
that hit him. “I lost a couple of inches of bone in my shin,
lost the feeling in my foot and a lot of mobility.”
The serious nature of injuries took him to the Walter Reed
National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and began
his fight to recover that would last more than two years.
“There were times when I thought it was going to be
impossible,” he said. “I was told I was never going to walk
right, I was told I was never going to be able to run or
carry weight on my back.”
Between more than 20
surgeries, Krapels spent 10 months in a wheelchair,
struggling and wondering if he would ever be the same again,
until a visit from 2nd Battalion's highest-ranking enlisted
soldier, Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Ferrusi changed
everything.
“Sgt. Maj. Ferrusi came down in July of
2010 to talk to me,” Krapels said. “That started the ball
rolling with me really throwing myself into physical therapy
and getting out of my wheelchair.”
“He was
struggling with identity,” said Ferrusi. “Did he want to
stay in the Army, did he want to get out, he didn't know.”
“I told him, ‘There are two things you can do in
life, you can either let adversity beat you or you can beat
adversity,'” he continued. “It's not the act that defines
you, it's not what happened to you that will define you,
it's what you're going to do from now and for the rest of
your life based on what happened.”
“I was the
battalion sergeant major when it happened,” Ferrusi said. “I
went home on leave and went to Walter Reed to visit him. I
stayed there about five days with him, hung out with him and
in the course of five days I got to know him, not just as a
soldier anymore but as a person.”
Over the course of
the five-day visit, Krapels discovered that that Ferrusi had
broken his neck in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring
Freedom I, lending weight to his words and a voice of
credibility and experience to his advice that the younger
Krapels wasn't aware of.
“It was motivating because
I found out that he had been injured and having someone that
high up who's been through the whole recovery process come
in and share some of his wisdom with me, it was an eye
opener,” said Krapels. “When sergeant major came, that was
the catalyst, like ‘If he did it, I can do it.'”
After that visit, Krapels threw himself into rehabilitation
and stated in no uncertain terms his desire to make it back
to the fight he was so prematurely pulled from.
“There were guys down there with no legs that were out
running,” he said. “I couldn't accept the fact that I wasn't
going to be a whole person and be able to do my job anymore,
so I just put my nose into recovering.”
“Everyone in
my chain of command at Walter Reed knew what my intentions
were,” he continued. “I actually removed myself from their
physical therapy because I thought it was moving too slow
and started doing a lot of it on my own.”
In June
2011, Krapels traveled to the Center for the Intrepid at the
Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, in San
Antonio, Texas. The CFI specializes in many things,
including advanced outpatient rehabilitation for patients
like Krapels. It was there that his rehabilitation made a
breakthrough when he was fitted for an Intrepid Dynamic
Exoskeletal Orthosis, or simply an IDEO.
The IDEO is
an external prosthesis that wraps around the leg, just below
the knee, a footplate that stabilizes the foot and ankle and
a pair of carbon fiber rods that connect the two. The device
works by offloading the weight of the wearer, alleviating
pain that some soldiers experience when walking or running.
“I went to San Antonio for the first time in June
2011 to get fitted for an IDEO, went back in August to get
it fitted and then went through a month of extensive
physical therapy,” he said. “After I received the IDEO I was
able to start running again.”
After his month in San
Antonio, Krapels returned to Walter Reed to check his status
and evaluate his progress.
“I came back and had to
go through a physical therapy revaluation at Bethesda and I
got cleared to return to duty,” he said.
In November
2011, Krapels returned to Italy, to the same battalion, and
back to Chosen Company, and tried to fit back in as quickly
as possible.
“I didn't get any special treatment,
which is good,” he said. “They welcomed me with open arms
and it was like I had never left.”
While he was
rehabilitating, Ferrusi kept up with Krapels' progress and
while the 2nd Battalion's commander was a new one, by the
time Krapels arrived back in Italy, Lt. Col. Michael Larsen
knew who he was.
“When we finally got the word he
was coming back, I was fired up,” said Larsen. “What a great
example of persistence and motivation and when I met him for
the first time and saw his energy and what a positive person
he is it inspired me.”
“Easily, he's a guy that
could have accepted what his wounds were, been medically
discharged and no one would have second guessed, no one
would have said a thing or judged him any differently,”
Larsen continued. “But he powered through all of that just
to be able to come back and deploy with Chosen Company
again, and deploy with ‘The Rock.'”
Once he returned
to the company, Krapels got right back into the swing of
things. With no physical profile limiting his actions, he
resumed training with his unit for their upcoming deployment
to Afghanistan. After three training rotations in Germany,
he attended the Army's Warrior Leader Course and graduated
on the Commandant's List.
He has been deployed to
eastern Afghanistan since June 2012 with Chosen Company,
battling the harsh weather and terrain, keeping up with
every step of the other soldiers.
“He's still
hurting,” Larsen said. “But he still goes out and executes
every patrol and never complains.”
His solid
performance and his perseverance led Ferrusi to fight for,
and ultimately succeed, in getting Krapels promoted. On
Jan.1, 2013, more than two years from his visit to Walter
Reed, Ferrrusi was able to pin Krapels with the rank of
sergeant.
“In this business you invest in what you
see, and his past performance to me was an indicator of his
future potential,” said Ferrusi. “I told him that ‘I know
you can beat this, I know you can come back and I'll support
you, I know it's going to be hard, but I won't waver on you
if you don't waver on me.”
“I stayed in touch with
him the entire time, he's doing great, he doesn't let his
injury interfere with his profession and now I get to
promote him,” he added.
Krapels, with his positive,
never-say-die attitude, is a living, breathing example to
other soldiers of the loyalty, drive and fight that has come
to define the paratroopers of "The Rock."
“He didn't
take no for an answer, continued to push himself physically
and mentally to get himself back here to the unit where his
true loyalties resided,” Larsen said. “He's an awesome guy
to have in the formation; I wish I had 100 of him.'
“To have a tangible example that you can point to so other
paratroopers can see in their midst, every day, the right
mindset of a paratrooper,” he continued. “I think that's
what every commander wishes to have, an example they can
always point to of a guy that doesn't quit, a guy that
doesn't give up, who found a way to make it back to the unit
and deploy with us. It's a great success story.”
While the paratroopers of Chosen Company, continue to patrol
Wardak Province, Krapels continues fighting the pain, but
keeping a positive attitude as he does it, because he is
finally back where feels he needs to be.
“When you
sign up as an infantryman during a time of war, you're
signing up to fight and when you get hurt and pulled out of
a combat situation with guys that you've been training with
forever, you feel like you lost your family,” Krapels said.
“I knew that they were going to be the same people, just
different names and I wanted to make sure that with some of
the drive and experience I have, I could share it and help
out.”
“It was good coming back,” he added. “I needed
it.”
By Army Sgt. Michael Sword
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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