Our weekly series, Remembering our Veterans continues with the story of Brian Fuller.

Since 2019, he has served as the Director of Operations for the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Sciences.

Long before he arrived on the campus of Mercyhurst University, he had one incredible tour of duty.

Fuller is a retired U.S. Army First Sergeant, where he served honorably for 24 years as a military intelligence senior, non-commissioned officer.

"I was going to college, I was playing college football I had gotten injured and I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish football. I wanted a change in my life, wanted to go and explore the world" said Fuller. "I was getting kind of bored with school at the time, and wanted something more exciting in my life. So, an army recruiter happened to be in the right place at the right time." 

Fuller also held joint assignments supporting theatre level strategic operations in the Middle East, Germany and the Korean Peninsula, and his operational assignments took him to more than two dozen countries, among them Iraq and Kosovo, and those missions came with a heavy price.

"I got injured in Iraq, came home and spent a solid 18 months recovering from my injuries," said Fuller. "We were clearing a suspected minefield and while we were clearing we got hit with a mortar rounds. So as the mortar attack was zeroing in on us, unfortunately I lost control of the D7G Dozer I was operating and fell down into a ravine."  

The satisfaction of serving his country shoulder to shoulder with his brothers and sisters in arms never gets old.

"There's no greater honor than defending your country and freedom and way of life," said Fuller. "Whether it's here domestically or overseas defending those who can't defend themselves, or those who are going to cause an attack or significantly impact our liberties. I woke up feeling I was doing something for the greater good."

Fuller also serves as a trustee for the NWPA Military Order of the Purple Heart Association, for which he is also a registered member.