Ryan Kraeger is the second of seven children. He grew up on a dairy farm in Upstate
NY, and was homeschooled in a devout Catholic family. He was an altar boy in the
local parish and sang in the choir. At seventeen he graduated from high school and
since he didn’t have the money for college he joined the Army as a reservist in June
2002, hoping to go to college while serving in the Reserves.
However, God had other plans. He went to basic and advanced training in Fort Leonard
Wood, MO, graduating as a Combat Engineer, trained in mines, counter-
In August of 2004 he found himself in the republic of Korea, where he was stationed for a year. It was from Korea that he first went to the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course (SFAS). He made it through the 24 day course near Fort Bragg, NC, but was not selected for Special Forces.
After returning to Korea and finishing out his tour he returned to the States, with a new duty station of Fort Riley, KS. When he arrived in October of 2005 he found that his unit was already in Iraq, so he waived his stateside dwell time to join them for the last three months of their deployment just north of Baghdad.
Upon returning to the states in January of 2006 his unit was already slotted for
a 2007 deployment to Afghanistan, so the following year was busy. During this time
he attended the Army’s Sapper Leader Course, made E-
In Afghanistan Ryan served as a member of a detached platoon who proudly called themselves
the “Nomads” since they never stayed anywhere long. They went from running route
clearance operations to pulling security for road construction, to providing engineer
support for infantry operations in Maiwand province, to training Afghan Army engineer
units on bridge building in Bagram. In the late fall of 2007 they built a bridge,
dismantled another, and repaired two more in the space of a month, before being reassigned
to route clearance operations. For the next six months the Nomads drove all over
eastern Afghanistan looking for roadside bombs.
In the last months of the deployment Ryan called back to the states to contact the Special Forces recruiters, so when they returned to the states in July of 2008, back to Fort Riley, KS, he already had a September class date. After training up for three months, he headed back to Fort Bragg. This time the course was only 14 days, but twice as hard, and this time he made it and was selected and was assigned to be trained as a Special Forces Medic.
After Airborne School in May of 2009 he moved to Fort Bragg and has been there ever since, slowly moving through the Army’s Special Forces Qualification Course. He hopes to graduate in November of 2011.
About the Author: Ryan Kraeger
