In a US Air Force Pararescue selection course of 146 candidates, only a dozen completed the course—including Cameron Strawn. Now an assistant professor of aerospace studies at Brigham Young University, Strawn shares how his commitment to try has allowed him to accomplish many feats that people once told him were too difficult to attempt or improbable to achieve.
While completing his bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Arizona, Strawn served as a cadet in the Air Force ROTC. There, he heard about Pararescue, a small special operations unit in the Air Force, and immediately gained a new objective: to join the unit as an officer. But when Strawn mentioned his goal to his peers, they told him it wasn’t doable.
Strawn brought the new objective to his commander. Although she warned him of the rigorous selection process and extensive training program, she encouraged him to apply. So Strawn applied during his junior year and adopted a new mantra: “I’m going to show up and make them tell me no.”
After being accepted as a Pararescue candidate in 2013, Strawn learned he would have to complete an 11-week selection course that weeds out more than 90 percent of candidates—an abrupt and intimidating realization. Nonetheless, he completed the course and two years of technical school, where he became a certified parachutist, learned counter interrogation skills, and gained a host of other technical skills, all while he was distanced from his wife and children. As he moved into the final seven-month-long apprentice program, Strawn was excited to finally use the skills he had developed.
Just a week into the apprentice course, Strawn was riding his bicycle on base when he was hit by a truck. He woke up from the accident with a broken leg and a concussion and was told he was going home. “I woke up very angry,” Strawn recalls.
But Strawn realized the accident had a silver lining. He had been away from his wife and two children for nearly 300 days, so Strawn used his recovery time to grow closer to his family, and in the process, his family grew: He and his wife had their third child. Strawn treasured his time at home, but he still held on to his hope of becoming a combat rescue officer and reentered the training program once he recovered.
After completing the apprentice program and countless practice rescue operations in 2018, Strawn became a certified team commander and was deployed in Somalia—fulfilling his dream of becoming a pararescueman.
However, only one month into his newly acquired position, Strawn’s commitment—and that of his family—was tested. News came that a helicopter (callsign “Jolly 51”) had crashed in Iraq, killing everyone onboard including three of Strawn’s friends.
The loss was a shocking heartbreak for Strawn and many others. “I went to the memorial, and I came home to talk to my wife,” he recalls. Strawn was scheduled to deploy to Somalia soon and conduct similar missions to the one his friends did not return from.
Torn between his service and the possibility of not returning home, Strawn asked his wife, “Are we sure we’re okay with this deployment?” He remembers her response to this day: “This is what we agreed to do. You’re leaving so you can bring other moms and dads home from the battlefield.”
Strawn completed his five-month deployment in Somalia, followed by three more deployments to Afghanistan and in the US. Throughout the assignments, Strawn and his wife depended on their preestablished values and their faith. “We had a commitment to each other, a commitment to the gospel, and a commitment to the service we agreed to do,” he explains. “That was really what got us through the tough times.”
Since the deployments, Strawn has continued to pursue goals he once felt to be improbable. In 2021 he earned an MBA from Upper Iowa University; that same year, he made it through another selective process to begin working as an assistant professor of aerospace studies at BYU. Strawn has also pursued pre-medicine coursework, and he now waits to hear if he’s been accepted into medical school.
Teaching students in BYU’s AFROTC about leadership and team-building fundamentals, Strawn often draws from his deployed experiences. “I get to work with students to help them understand what air force service looks like,” he describes. “It’s been an incredible experience.”
Strawn sees how many of his students hope to achieve challenging goals, so he seeks to encourage them to chase their aspirations no matter how improbable or difficult they may seem.
“My advice is always that it might be hard, but people do hard things,” he explains. So instead of telling his students to avoid the challenge, Strawn encourages them to do all they can to leave the decision up to admission officers—and with the students’ willingness to try, they may end up where they want to be. After all, Strawn speaks from experience.
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Written by Nicholas Day