The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Brandon Swanson Flags line the edge of the Plaza as the CSU Republicans ask for students to write letters for soldiers on Thursday.

Noah Roberts doesn't advertise his military service with bumper stickers and over-the-top slogans on the back of an American pick-up truck. Landscape photos cover his apartment walls, where medals and other decorations could have been.

For those who meet him, the Purple Heart license plate on his humble '96 Honda Civic is the only giveaway. But after persistent prodding, the former staff sergeant might share a war story or two ¬-- like the time a bullet caught up with him while doing recon on Al Qaeda.

With a stout build and the usual five-o-clock shadow, Roberts, a senior history major, is just one of the 282 CSU students currently drawing veteran education benefits, a luxury afforded by the G.I. Bill.

He joined the Army in 1996 after graduating from high school in Brush, Colo. and became an air defense troop, operating shoulder-fired Stinger missile weapons.

Unsatisfied with his career field in the service, he put in for the Special Forces in 2000, graduating from a rigorous training program as a Green Beret two years later.

In 2003, he found himself in Afghanistan fighting Taliban forces.

"It was definitely an eye-opener," Roberts said. "Something that less than one percent of the population will experience, let alone less than one percent of the military."

Roberts was part of an A-Team: a 12-man long-range reconnaissance outfit performing missions gathering information on suspected Al Qaeda training camps.

Combat was hit and miss.

"In the end it was more than I bargained for," he admits. "We fought for two days straight."

After three months in the country, Roberts was shot through the shoulder near the end of the second day of fierce fighting while calling in close air support on an enemy position.

"I rolled out of the door of my vehicle and thought I'd see my arm up on the seat, but it was still attached," he said.

He was transported to Germany shortly thereafter, prematurely ending his tour of duty, and was awarded the Purple Heart upon returning to the U.S.

After emergency exploratory surgery followed by a year of rehabilitation, his shoulder was healed.

Continued...

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