Local & State Headlines

Injured Albany soldier honored

• Derraivius Strawder’s future in the Army depends on his regaining full use of his legs, he says.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — An Albany soldier continues to heal since a June 23 attack outside a meeting between U.S. and local officials in Salman Pak, Iraq.

Derraivius Strawder, 27, considers himself lucky. One of six wounded, he was one of four survivors when a former Iraqi council member walked up and unexpectedly opened fire on a group of soldiers from the Second Battalion, Sixth Infantry regiment, based in Baumholder, Germany.

Strawder’s friend, fellow Private First Class Bryan Thomas, lay nearby. He died on the way to a landing site where a Med-Evac helicopter would carry the injured men to a Baghdad hospital.

“We were trying to keep him conscious, keep him awake,” said Strawder, whose right femur had been shattered and part of his left calf shot off by the gunman’s AK-47.

A month later, Strawder is living at a Warrior Transition Unit in Germany, apart from most of his Army friends, who remain in Iraq.

He was back in the hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, Wednesday.

“My knee got really stiff, so I came in for a few days, so they can work aggressively on it so I can walk normally again, without a limp,” he said.

Strawder, who played percussion in the Dougherty High School band, joined the Army in 2001, then re-enlisted in January after living for a few years in London, where he studied film, he said.

He’s currently completing a degree online in communications, but planned to have a career in the Army, he said.

Now, with pins and a metal plate in his right leg, Strawder’s future depends on how well his legs heal.

“I plan on staying in, if they let me,” he said. “It’s up to them, if I heal and I can still meet the standards.”

After the first of about six surgeries on his legs, Strawder was presented with a Purple Heart medal in the hospital.

Today, he spends his time with his German girlfriend and with physical therapists. He’s started walking on crutches but can’t put any weight on his right leg.

Doctors expect he’ll need a year to fully recover from his injuries.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but I know I need to do it,” he said.

Strawder said his fellow soldiers make him want to remain in the Army.

“It’s different than working in a civilian job. They’re more like family, and you know they’re always going to have your back,” he said.

Strawder’s mother, Queen Thomas, received a call from the Army casualty office the evening after Strawder was injured.

When she traveled to Germany the following week to see him, after Strawder was airlifted from Baghdad back to Germany, she learned two soldiers had been killed in the attack.

“He was one of the three they didn’t think would make it,” she said.

A nurse in Albany, Thomas said she felt better after visiting her son in the hospital.

“The hospital there is just wonderful, and all the people there are just wonderful. I kind of didn’t want to leave him, but seeing him there is some kind of consolation,” she said.

She’s grown accustomed to her first family member’s service in the armed forces.

“I was totally against the war, but to hear them talk and hear him talk — he wants to go back now, for our freedom. To hear him talk, it’s changed my mind,” she said.

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