Mark Shrewsbury Transcript.pdf

Mark Shrewsbury, SSG Ret. US Army

Mark Shrewsbury knew that joining the US Army was an excellent opportunity to travel outside of Panama City, Florida and see the world. Over Shrewsbury’s twenty years in service, he has visited all but the continents of South America and Antarctica working for the Judge Advocate General [JAG] and public affairs. With a knee injury and cancer ending his time in service, a motivated Shrewsbury now takes on the Warrior Games.

The first in his family to graduate high school, Mark Shrewsbury had his hopes set high on seeing the world and experiencing as much as he could. He briefly attended college but would eventually decide on a path in the US Military. Shrewsbury scored high enough on the initial entry tests to have a wide array of options available for his military occupational specialty [MOS].Looking to be the antithesis to a difficult family history, Shrewsbury selected being a paralegal for JAG.

Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe were all destinations of Shrewsbury’s MOS, of which he split between his initial paralegal position and then public affairs. Shrewsbury’s first Las Vegas experience was a byproduct of his Army service, of which he counts as “really rewarding.” In 2013, he was a participant of two-week Operation Talisman Saber in the Australian Outback, another highlight. Suffering a rupture to his patellar tendon in 2014, Shrewsbury also shoved his kneecap into his thigh resulting in surgery. No sooner than Shrewsbury was off crutches, he was diagnosed with stage four skin cancer, which prevented him from finishing physical therapy. Traveling to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa from the Florida panhandle every week was far from convenient. Care Coalition representative, Johnny Moses, assisted in getting Shrewsbury transferred to the United States Special Operations Command [SOCOM] in Tampa to ease his commute.

The Care Coalition was not only essential in helping Shrewsbury relocate to accommodate his medical needs, but by helping to have him transferred to SOCOM, they were pivotal to introducing Shrewsbury to the Warrior Games. Shrewsbury covered the Games in Quantico, Virginia in 2015 and was approached by Sergeant First Class Mark Brown who convinced Shrewsbury to compete. Due to the abrupt curtailment of Shrewsbury’s physiotherapy, he exercised caution in sports that required heavy use of his knees. Shrewsbury’s first Warrior Games was in 2016, where he competed in recumbent cycling, archery, and swimming. In the Games, Shrewsbury has found the support of community.

Shrewsbury stays in touch with many of the friends he met in his first Warrior Games in 2016, and then in his second in 2017. There are events that happen all throughout the year. So, even though Warrior Games participation is limited to two years, Shrewsbury has opportunities to compete and see his friends often, and they stay in constant contact. Shrewsbury can count on supportive texts and Facebook messages relating to his surgeries, treatments for his cancer, and the successes of his children. After a twenty-year career in the military, Shrewsbury has moved onto writing proposals for government contracts for flight and ground tank simulators and can add two written novels to his list of accomplishments. For him, working through his injuries has always been about not letting them define who he is. For those that are going through what Shrewsbury has experienced, he knows the road is tough, but he offers some inspirational words: “You can still go in there, do your best… Sometimes you need friends. Sometimes you need to prove to yourself that you’re still in the game… you’re still you.” Shrewsbury certainly is and wouldn’t have it any other way as a retiree of the Army and a two-time Warrior Games participant.