Profile - David Casarez

Here is my first profile of someone who is an inspiration. Its interesting how you meet people in life. I met David, or Staff Sergeant Casarez in the early summer of 2011. I was working on Soccer for the Cure and posted something on Twitter. One thing lead to another, or, more likely, one retweet led to another and David tweeted about my event. We exchanged tweets and emails and I learned part of his story.

So, here is David’s story, which as best as I can tell, is being told for the first time. In 1992, an 18 year old knew everything. I am sure most of us can relate to that – I know I can. So, unlike those of us who went to college to find ourselves, and found beer, girls or who knows what else (I found a roommate on probation from the State of Washington for Grand Theft Auto who decided to sell coke out of our dorm room and not the cola kind), David signed up for the US Army. He was assigned to the most deployed regular army unit in the world – the 10^th Mountain Division. Three years later, David had seen the world, learned to be responsible, was disciplined and could pay for college. So, he did what anyone would do, went to college and became a law enforcement officer.

Then, on a day when we all know where we were when the news came, David did what most of us didn’t. He enlisted in the Army again. Yep, on 9/11, when I was still in law school and working, when Pat Tillman felt a pull of patriotism, David did as well. Not only did David go back, he requested to join a battalion that would be deploying to battle. So while I was busy opening my law firm, while many of us were several years out from September 11 and moving on with life, David was patrolling the mountains of Afghanistan looking for guys who scare the crap out of most of us. He spent three more years in the infantry, into his mid 30s, before he switched to the medical field. David has done things and saw things that most of us want to pretend don’t exist.

Then life reared up its ugly head. You know the book “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Yeah, well, this is one of those stories. While serving our country and protecting our freedom, David started having minor headaches. He passed out one night and ended up in the ER. He was referred to an army doctor who was a few months from retiring. After ordering a ton of tests, one test showed a kidney problem. The blood test was connected to the x-ray. The x-ray was connected to the sonogram. The sonogram was connected to the CT scan. The CT scan was connected to – well, it showed two malignant cells on his right kidney. A few weeks later, David was having surgery to remove renal cells, part of his diaphragm and ¼ of his kidney.

Now we are five years later. David is healthy, more fit than most soldiers, runs 5K races and, of course, still plays soccer! David stays in the Army and is thankful for the care he received – “the best treatment in the world,” as he says. But he is also a self described sports nut who has started a sports blog. While harder than he thought it would be, David said “But like my fight against Cancer, I didn't allow myself to quit and stuck with it. I'm small potatoes compared to some bloggers, but I love it and find it relaxing.”

In addition to his blog, his service in the military, he is involved with the 24-Hour Walk-for-Cancer Survivors Marathon in Germany. Service members from all over the Heidelberg area signed up to walk a 5-10-15-20-or-25 miler in support of cancer survivors. David has coached soccer for over 15 years, and while asked to coach in select leagues, he sticks with the military's Child & Youth Services league – think YMCA in the military. While the skill level may not be the same, David stays with them because “ the way I see it, military kids go through a lot when their parents are in the service. Much of it we don't see, such as deployments, separation due to military commitments, change of schools every 2-3 years. It's hard on a kid to live the military life. That is why they have a special bond with each other.” This isn’t just some saying. David knows that his daughters have sacrificed as well, but they “stood strong all these years while I was jumping from assignment to assignment. Seeing the commitment the kids make for the parents, motivates me to give right back to them by coaching. I've been fortunate enough to play higher levels of soccer throughout the world, the least I can do is give my skills right back to the military kids and train them properly for the next level.”

David is an all around good guy. He is an example of the fine men and women in our military. And, despite serving his country, he went back when he felt the call. He went to the places we don’t want to go to keep his country safe. He stayed despite his cancer diagnosis and continues to give back through the 24 hour walk and coaching soccer for the military kids. David is an inspiration to me.