Franko Poynter has only known Jason Strejcek for a short time, but it’s long enough to know his story, and to appreciate the character of the retired Navy corpsman who served for eight years and completed two deployments to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“He cares, he pays attention to details, and he has a compassionate heart – that’s a wonderful combination,” said Poynter, a Vietnam Veteran who was Strejcek’s squad leader at PGA HOPE National Golf and Wellness week last week in Washington, D.C. “It takes a special breed of cat to do what he’s done.”
Strejcek, 44, represented the Northern Ohio PGA Section as one of 20 Ambassadors in the nation’s capital. PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) is the flagship military program of the PGA of America REACH Foundation, introducing and teaching golf to Veterans and Active Duty Military to enhance their physical, mental, social and emotional well-being.
“Intense” and “more intense” is how Strejcek explains his two six-month deployments that will stay with him forever. But that doesn’t begin to tell the story of a man who was so angry after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that he stopped taking classes in college and signed up to defend the country he loves.
Strejcek grew up outside Cleveland in a middle-class working neighborhood and played as many sports as he could. Though he played golf only a few times a year, he shined on the football field, where he played quarterback. He begrudgingly went to college at the University of Toledo but didn’t feel he was mature enough to handle the structure.
During his junior year, when 9/11 happened, he only heard about the tragedy through the radio. It wasn’t until later that he saw the horrifying images.
“Shock turned to anger,” he said, “and I needed to think about doing something about it.
“The country was together. You saw people had American flags on their cars. I remember trying to go to the store to find one, but you couldn’t because they were all sold out. Everyone was nice to each other. To me, it was something worth fighting for.”
After a move to South Florida, Strejcek entered the Delayed Entry Program (DEP), which gave time for a spot to open as a Marine medic. He officially entered the service in March 2003, and after all his training was complete, he landed with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
His first deployment was in spring 2004.
“It was nothing that we didn’t train for,” he said. “We trained very hard, which made the deployment easier – the long hours, no sleep. The thing you don’t train for is when you lose somebody. That’s the tough part.”
When Strejcek returned, he joined the football team on base. It only took three passes for the Marine captain football coach to realize he had his new quarterback. That season provided a much-needed release.
The next deployment was in 2006, with the Military Transition Team (MiTT), where Strejcek was the corpsman of a small unit that lived with the Iraqi Army and was tasked with training them. They all lived together in a house, went on missions together and had interpreters. Strejcek had to find a couple Iraqi soldiers that he thought he could train as medics.
“There was always a bounty on our heads,” Strejcek said. “They were not allowed in our room; we had it set up as the last line of defense in case they turned on us. We had personal locator beacons that, if they turned on us, we could hit the button and the signal goes out. By the time anyone could come, it’d be too late.
“You’re always on edge. For a full six months just completely on edge.”
There finally came a point, however, where Strejcek and his team trusted the Iraqis. They were all on a patrol when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off and blasted Strejcek to the ground. It was the beginning of an ambush, and he was dazed. Once Strejcek regained his senses, he realized that he was behind a wall because one of the Iraqi soldiers helped him to safety.
“They could have just run the other way, but no, they helped me,” he said.
During another mission in that same deployment, the unit was hit with another IED while Strejcek was pulling a soldier out of a vehicle and badly injured his shoulder, which has since required five different surgeries. That injury prevented him from being able to deploy again and eventually, in 2010, Strejcek was honorably and medically discharged.
“My PTSD is not really the things that I did, it’s the people I couldn’t save,” Strejcek says now, the pain still etched on his face. “That’s the one that’s hard. Deep down, I know that even if we had the best surgeons in the world right then and there, there’s nothing that could have been done.
“But I don’t want to forget this stuff either. I don’t want to not think about it, because to me, it’s like I’m tarnishing the memory of those we lost.”
Strejcek met and married Leah a year before he left the service, and she thought he’d be a great nurse in his post-military career. He was nervous about the schooling, but his sense of discipline and responsibility helped him get through, and he later landed a job at a Chicago-area hospital.
His son, Hudson, was born in 2014, and everything changed for Strejcek. Nothing had ever affected him before; he never brought the difficulties of the day home with him. But almost immediately, he was a wreck anytime they lost a patient in the hospital. The family moved back to the Cleveland suburbs, Strejcek’s hometown, and he found work at a hospital there. It didn’t take long for him to realize he needed another career.
“Mentally, this is not healthy,” he remembers saying to himself. “I do not want to process things this way.”
Ultimately, he went back to school and earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and now serves as the director of operations for PurposeCare, a home health and home care company.
I like to express my emotions. I don’t think people should just hold things in. It just eats you up. There are too many people who have been taught that if you show emotion or you need to talk to somebody or you have mental issues that you’re weak. That is just not the case.
Golf has been an obsession for Strejcek in the past few years, and he really got serious about the game during the COVID pandemic, when he installed a simulator in his house and got down to a 22-handicap. In early 2023, his game wasn’t getting better so he jumped on the computer trying to find discounted golf lessons for Veterans. He found PGA HOPE. There was a class starting in two days, at the Washington Park Learning Center in Newburgh Heights, but it was full. A day later, he got a call from Danielle Monas, the foundation director of the Northern Ohio PGA, and someone had dropped out, paving the way for him to join. Six weeks later, after working diligently with PGA of America Golf Professional Steve Morgan on course management and eliminating silly mistakes, his handicap had dropped to a 10.6.
Today, he’s a 4.8, with a damaged right shoulder from the IED explosion nearly 20 years ago.
“It hurts absolutely every day, all the time,” he said. “I don’t care though.”
Strejcek has been a wonderful resource for the Northern Ohio PGA Section and the overall PGA HOPE program. He’s helpful in recruiting new Veterans and has represented his section in numerous events, including the Secretary’s Cup in May in Charlotte, prior to the PGA Championship.
Said Monas: “He relates to every Veteran that he meets, whether they’re new to the game or an avid player. He’s comfortable speaking to people and recommending new Veterans to the program. Before he had the official title of Ambassador he was already doing things that an Ambassador does.”
Last week in Washington, the Ambassadors sat in a conference room and had a heavy session where they discussed some of the most difficult things they experienced during their darkest days. It was highly emotional. Strejcek noticed that Wisconsin’s Anthony Laske was holding something in on the opposite side of the room.
“I went outside to get some fresh air and he’s like, just talk to me,” Laske, 31, said of Strejcek. “I let it all out and felt instantly better.”
Said Strejcek: “I like to express my emotions. I don’t think people should just hold things in. It just eats you up. There are too many people who have been taught that if you show emotion or you need to talk to somebody or you have mental issues that you’re weak. That is just not the case.”
Through his words and his actions, Strejcek is enduring proof.
PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) is on a mission unlike any other – to change and save Veteran’s lives through the power of golf. The program introduces and teaches golf to Veterans and Active Duty Military to enhance their physical, mental, social and emotional well-being. Led by PGA of America Golf Professionals, the program is inclusive of a developmental 6-8 week curriculum. All programs are provided at no cost to all participating Veterans. To learn more or donate, visit pgahope.com.