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DRAWSKO-POMORSKIE, Poland— When Sgt. Ryan Friedrichs, of Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, decided to enlist in the U.S. Army he already had a degree from the University of Michigan, and one from Harvard University. His story, like those of many other military personnel, is one of selfless service, a desire to make things better for others and of taking the road less traveled.
Freidrichs was attending orientation at Harvard, when the Trade Center was bombed on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I thought about joining then,” said Friedrichs, “but I had already committed to a job in Detroit after graduate school.”
Friedrichs, of Detroit, Mich., and his unit are currently deployed to Drawsko-Pomorskie to conduct training alongside Canadian and Polish paratroopers in the northern forests of Poland.
“We’ve been here about two months learning from our NATO Allies. We’re all soldiers and everyone speaks a similar language but there are some cultural differences and some tactical differences that are good learning points,” explained Friedrichs, who’s made 15 jumps during his enlistment. “We exchange weapons and tactics and come away better for it. We’ve been doing some high-risk training, some breach training, live explosives, helo-casting and an airfield seizure.”
Friedrichs said he joined the paratroopers specifically because he wanted to “share what he saw as a heavy load carried by a very small group over a very long time.”
He wanted to contribute something to that before operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere ended.
“I worked in Detroit for 10 years and I ran a non-profit that worked on urban renewal and had seen a lot of friends deploy and a lot of friends serve and my feeling was that there was a small group doing too much for too long and I just wanted to carry that load myself—do one deployment if I could myself—or more and I was most aware of the sacrifices of airborne infantry,” said Friedrichs.
Friedrichs also volunteered with an organization that brought him in close contact with families who lost family members in Afghanistan.
“I worked with an organization called Team Red, White and Blue that helps wounded vets and all veterans reintegrate into civilian life. I met a few families through that who had really inspired me and had sacrificed a lot,” said Friedrichs. “I became very close with one family who had lost their son and they were the last straw that sort of encouraged me that I couldn’t stay on the sidelines anymore. I definitely wanted to go down and sign up.”
Friedrichs found himself in Afghanistan where he went on numerous patrols. The 173rd Airborne Brigade’s time there was a tough one but Friedrichs kept the conversation about it light. According to Sgt. 1st Class Stuart Sword, of Chesapeake, Va., that’s Friedrich’s style—“you never hear him complain.”
“We worked in an outpost in farm country—pretty rural Afghanistan and supported a lot of farmers who were under pressure from the Taliban,” said Friedrichs. “We supported the training of the Afghan National Army as well so almost every patrol was with the ANA. We supported local Afghans and got to know them well. We had a lot of good partners we trained with and worked with just like we’re doing now.”
Friedrichs described the 173rd Airborne Brigade as a “remarkable unit to be a part of.”
And he learned from his combat environment experience not to take shortcuts.
“This unit was very good in putting safety first, using risk assesments and the way they performed sweeps for IEDs,” said Friedrichs. “The way they conduct themselves is admirable. I am very proud of almost every hour we spent downrange so looking back it was a very, very good decision to serve and I was very fortunate to be assigned to this unit.”
Friedrichs met his wife Jocelyn Benson at Harvard and they were married in 2006. She is the Dean of Law at Wayne State University and is the youngest female ever to run a law school. She works with Military Spouses of Michigan, which supports spouses of all military members regardless of duty status.
Friedrichs and his wife are members of a group of friends who call themselves “the O-team.” Every year they take on a challenge and this year they plan to climb Mt. Ranier, Wash. —14,400 feet in two days.
Friedrichs also started a chapter of Team Red, White and Blue in Vicenza, Italy, where he is stationed, and is a member of the Detroit chapter. Team RWB helps veterans reintegrate back into civilian life and the Vicenza chapter currently has 400 members.
Friedrichs enlistment is up in 90 days, so the next question would be: Is it hard leaving the Army?
“Yes and no,” said Friedrichs, pausing. “It’s difficult to leave, full stop, people you are close to and people you deployed with.”
“When you leave, you leave. Just leave. That’s it. But I’m excited about spending time with my wife,” he adds, smiling.
“Spouses serve too, and I don’t always think they get the credit they deserve. The family serves as a unit. They say that a lot but, boy, it’s true. So I’ve been grateful for the support I’ve gotten from my wife. Someone said one time: it’s short and awful for us and it’s long an awful for them,” said Friedrichs. “It goes by faster when you’re here everyday getting up at the crack of dawn, guarding all through the night but for them it’s long and lonesome and it moves a lot slower and a lot harder in a different way.”
And he is excited about returning to Detroit where he feels a certain sense of responsibility as well.
“Detroit has suffered the biggest bankruptcy in history,” said Friedrichs. “This is a new chance for a lot of good things to happen, for Detroit to get second wind. There is a lot of new energy there.”
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.27.2014 04:46 |
| Story ID: | 134628 |
| Location: | PL |
| Web Views: | 1,434 |
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This work, Harvard grad wraps up military service in 173rd Airborne, by MSG Claudia Burcham, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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