Derose receives purple heart

A soldier with ties to both Prince William and Stafford counties received a Purple Heart during a Dec. 19 ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Army Pfc. Derek Derose 20, of Stafford County, was injured by an improvised explosive device while on patrol with his unit near Beni Zaid, Iraq on Oct. 17.
“People are always telling me I’m lucky,” he said. “Lucky doesn’t cut it. I’m straight up blessed. This is the fourth time I’ve been involved in an IED. This is definitely the ace of spades.”
The 2006 graduate of Brooke Point High School in Stafford is a gunner assigned to C Company, 1/21 Infantry Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, HI, was raised in Prince William County and moved with his family to Stafford County about a month after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Derose and his unit were near the end of a 72-hour patrol when the explosion that injured him occurred.
“It was about hour 56 or so,” he recalled. “We had to clear a previous IED hole. Once we got past that, about two to three meters after the hole, they had a wire switch set up. I don’t know if I stepped on it or somebody else stepped on it, but it went boom.”
Derose’s right hand took the brunt of the blast, which knocked him to the ground, sent his weapon flying, and blew his Kevlar helmet off.
“At first I didn’t even know I was hit. I was baffled. I took about three or four steps and fell forward,” he said.
Derose gave a shout out to two of his sergeants, whose last names are Christianson and Brown, for immediately coming to his aid and stabilizing him. The blast severely damaged the nerves in his right hand.
“They are estimating it’s going to be a full year before I get full use of my hand,” he said.
Derose broke the news of his injuries to his parents during a telephone call. With a shake of her head, Sharon Derose recalled that Derek wouldn’t tell her what happened. Instead, he asked to speak to his dad.
“We got to talk to him,” she said. “The fact that we got to hear his voice was calming.”
During that conversation, Derek had more concern about his family than he did for himself. The oldest of three boys, Derek begged his parents not to tell his middle brother, who was going off to college, about what had happened. Sharon Derose said Derek was concerned that the news would adversely impact his brother’s grades.
“That’s how Derek is,” Sharon Derose said. “It wasn’t all about how he was, his injuries, how hurt he was. He was worried about the family.”
Derek also kept quiet about joining the Army, telling his mom about his decision one night around 10 p.m.
“He said, ‘Mom, we’re in war right now and you would have talked me out of it, and this is what I want to do,’” she said.
Derose and his unit arrived in Iraq on Dec. 9, 2007. His fellow soldiers are spending their second Christmas overseas.
“I feel kind of guilty leaving my unit,” he said. “I miss those guys a lot. I know it’s [the Purple Heart] not given to everybody. I’ve got a couple of buddies back in Hawaii who’ve gotten it. I’d rather be back there [in Iraq] with my unit than back here living the high life as it is.”
Derose wore the same private’s patch to his Purple Heart ceremony that he had on the day he was injured. The patch, covered in his blood, served as a stark reminder to Sharon Derose about what might have been.
“This is what Christmas is all about,” she said. “This is my gift. He’s an awesome kid.”