'How do I make God look good?': Special Forces med sergeant awarded Purple Heart after amputation

EGLIN AFB — Special Forces Master Sgt. Ivan Morera Jr. of the Eglin Air Force Base-headquartered U.S. Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) knew exactly what was going on in the moments on Aug. 16, 2013, when his life changed inside an overturned truck on a roadside in Afghanistan.

What he didn't know then was exactly how his life would change. He didn't know, for instance, that he would become the only one-handed free-fall parachutist in the U.S. military. He didn't know that he also would become the only one-handed medical sergeant in America's military services. And he didn't know that, in 2021, he would turn in top performances in the Department of Defense Warrior Games, an annual multiple-sport event for wounded, injured or ill service personnel and veterans.

But all of that, and more, had happened for Morera.

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And he added to his long list of achievements Wednesday, when a long-delayed Purple Heart was pinned to Morera's uniform in a ceremony at the 7th Group's compound near Crestview by Col. Kevin Trujillo, the group's commander.

The Purple Heart, awarded to troops wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of an enemy, had been slow in coming to Morera because the 2013 incident was first seen as little more than a road accident.

But Morera's fellow troops eventually proved that crashing Morera's truck was the first step in a multiple-pronged enemy action that ended when explosives worn by a suicide bomber exploded near the truck, part of a convoy that had been specifically targeted by the Taliban.

In the incident, the truck Morera was driving was forced off the road by a Taliban insurgent who swerved his motorcycle in front of the vehicle. The truck rolled over four times, crushing Morera's dominant left hand and pinning it between the truck and the ground.

From the passenger seat, another member of Morera's team tied a tourniquet around Morera's arm. Soon after, the team's junior medical sergeant tied a second tourniquet around Morera's arm and finished what the rolling truck had started.

"He completed the amputation," Morera said matter-of-factly as he recalled the incident Tuesday, one day before he was presented with the long-delayed Purple Heart in ceremonies at Camp Arthur D. "Bull" Simons.

"I'm a man of faith," Morera added of those moments on an Afghanistan roadside, "and I was just praying, 'Let me see my wife and kids.' "

Morera did make it back home, initially to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. His wife, Nancy, and their two children, Amber, then 12 years old, and Alejandro, then 9, moved to San Antonio to be near him during his 10 months of physical and occupational therapy.

"The second night I was there is when it hit me," Morera said. "I was questioning myself, doubting myself. Then, I heard a voice tell me, 'Ivan, you're going to be OK.' "

Knowing as a man of faith that the voice came from the one true and living God, Morera began setting goals for himself. At first there were small things, like going for a walk. Then, Morera committed to learning how to use prosthetics, and then he set his sights on deploying again, which he has done numerous times.

The motivating factor in his remarkable recovery and his life since then, Morera said, was just a single question, one that would justify his faith that God had told him everything would turn out all right.

"It was, 'How do I make God look good?' " he said.

Born in New York City, Morera grew up in Miami Beach, part of a family that had immigrated to the United States from South America. An uncle joined the Navy and served in Vietnam, two cousins served in the Army and his brother was a Marine for 20 years, so it's no surprise that Morera would serve in the military, although he was 27 when he joined and served as a combat medic during the Iraq War.

One evening, Morera watched a Special Forces team come into the firebase where he was serving to get resupplied, and that was all it took.

"I saw the Green Berets, and the cool equipment, and I said, 'Oh, man, I want to do that,'" Morera remembered. He completed the qualification course in 2008 and immediately deployed to Afghanistan with the 7th Group.

And as things turned out, being part of the 7th Group has been an integral part of Morera's recovery and life since the 2013 incident in Afghanistan.

"I was very self-committed to reaching my goals, but there were so many people in 7th Group who supported me, that's what really got me there," he said.

And even as he got help from his fellow troops, Morera used his road back from his injury to provide some life lessons for his daughter, now a 20-year-old junior at Ohio State, and his son, an 18-year-old student at Crestview High School.

"I wanted to show my kids that we don't give up ... that the Moreras don't quit ... that no matter what situation you're in you can overcome anything with your faith, your family and your friends," he said.

For Morera, it's his wife who provides him with needed life lessons.

"She's just like my rock," he said. "She's there for me, but she doesn't let me make excuses."

All of Morera's Special Forces service has been with the 7th Group, and even today, as he is assigned to U.S. Special Operations Command, he maintains that tie, working both at the 7th Group compound and at nearby Hurlburt Field as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Warrior Care program.

"We advocate for wounded, ill and injured Special Operations service members to make sure they get proper care to go back to duty or to transition out into the civilian world," he explained.

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The work is familiar territory for Morera, who was helped by the Warrior Care program after his injury. "They did all my paperwork, found a house for my family and I to live in (in San Antonio), and had special programs for my kids," he said.

So when the position he now holds came open, Morera eagerly seized the opportunity.

"I wanted to pay back what the Warrior Care program did for me," he said. His own experience has helped him to do exactly that for troops who come into Warrior Care.

"They can definitely relate to me easier because I've been through what they might be going through," he said.

Warrior Care participants see him lifting weights and even conducting training, as he has done in numerous deployments to help train U.S. partner forces in various countries in the 7th Group's primary area of responsibility, comprising Central America, South America and the Caribbean Sea.

In short, Morera said, troops dealing with their challenges see him "still being a Green Beret. You know what I mean?"

"My goal is to inspire other service members, no matter what their situation is," he added. "I want them to understand that their situation doesn't define who they are."

The troops with whom Morera now comes in contact will no doubt be inspired by his performance in this year's Warrior Games, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Morera took first place in the one-minute time-trial rowing event. He placed second in the four-minute rowing event, and matched that with a second-place performance in the shot put with a throw of 27 feet, 10 inches. He rounded out the impressive display with a score of 178 out of a possible 300 in the archery competition.

Asked why he chose to compete in events where having a prosthetic hand was clearly a disadvantage — although he does use a rowing machine as part of his ongoing therapy — Morera said, "That's why I picked them, because they were challenging. I wanted to pick hard sports.

"I had never done shot put before, so I said, 'That's perfect!' " Morera added.

The story was the same with archery.

"I said, 'Hey, I want to try something new," Morera said. So U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) sent him a bow and arrow, a friend lent him a target and he went to a SOCOM training camp in Tampa.

"It's something I enjoy doing now," he said. "I love being on a Special Forces team, but I prefer individual sports because the only person I can blame is me if I don't do well."

Now 48 years old, with 21 years of service in the Army, Morera is committed to the work he now has with the service.

"I want to continue advocating and working for our injured, ill and wounded Special Operations Forces service members to 'pay it forward. '"

Whenever he does retire, though, Morera would like to work as a strength and conditioning coach for athletes facing challenges like his, and to work with wounded veterans to ensure that they continue to get the care that they need after their retirement.

On a personal level, Morera wants to continue skydiving and participate in shooting sports, and is even thinking about getting back into martial arts.

"Disability is a state of mind," Morera said, explaining that he sees the issues that he and others like him are facing as challenges of adaptation.

"For me, I'm adaptive. It might take me a little longer, or I might have to think it through, (but) ... I can do anything anybody else can."

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: 7th Group med sergeant awarded Purple Heart, excels in Warrior Games