PFC. Marissa Strock

My Daughter, My Friend… My Hero

Marissa was assigned to the 170 th MP Co. out of Fort Lewis, WA. Deployed to Iraq in May of 2005, she spent six months assisting in the training of the Iraqi Police force in South Baghdad.

On November 24, 2005 (Thanksgiving day) while on a mission with her team, the up-armored humvee that she was gunning in was hit by a command detonated IED that was buried in the road. Four 1.55 artillery rounds ripped through the vehicle taking the lives of SSG Steven Reynolds and SPC Marc Delgado (team leader and driver, God rest their souls). Marissa was medi-vacced to the Baghdad CSH where they took her left foot and stabilized her for the flight to Germany.

Due to the loss of blood and swelling in her brain, she was in a coma as well as other multiple injuries. A compound fracture to her right upper arm and multiple fractures to her right forearm and wrist, a broken collar bone and shoulder blade. Her left femur was broken in multiple places as well as extensive damage to her right tibia, ankle and heel bones. She sustained a lacerated liver and severely bruised lungs causing her the inability to breathe on her own.

From Baghdad she was flown to Germany and two days later, onto Walter Reed Army Medical Center. At Walter Reed they placed the hardware in her right arm, left femur and knee and did what they could with external fixtures to see if the right lower leg was going to be salvageable. The neurological prognosis was not promising as she was not responding to any stimuli to bring her out of her coma.

Approximately one month after her arrival at WRAMC, she finally responded with “I love you too” as I was leaving for the night. Since then Marissa has surpassed all expectations. She did opt to have her right leg taken below the knee as well and is currently undergoing physical therapy as a bilateral below knee amputee.

As her mother, I want to say that she has shown myself and many others the absolute definition of honor, courage and strength as she continues on with her recovery.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Thank you Cindy for creating Operation Second Chance in honor of all these fine soldiers.

This story was told by Marissa's mother