A soldier who was born in Fairbanks, and received the nation’s highest military honor, has died. According to the Army Times, Medal of Honor recipient Ronald J. Shurer II, was being treated for lung cancer at a Washington DC area hospital, where he died Thursday. He was 41 years old.
Shurer, the son of military parents, was born in Fairbanks in 1978, and his family moved around the
country before settling in Washington State.
Shurer joined the Army following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, and received the Medal of Honor in 2018 for his actions as a Green Beret medic in a 2008 battle in Afghanistan, during which he saved several injured members of his special forces unit and Afghan comrades, while wounded and under heavy fire.
Shurer left the Army in 2009 and joined a Washington DC based Secret Service tactical team that defends the president.
Shurer is survived by his wife and two children.
