TOPEKA (KSNT) - Reenlisting following a national tragedy, Army Sergeant Michael Cruse served however he could across the country and abroad during his 21 years of service.
Cruse joined the service in his junior year of high school. He was motivated by an unusual source, his history class.
“When you go through high school obviously you study a lot of history," Cruse said. "A lot of our history unfortunately focuses on people that have been oppressed. Looking at that, like World War II with the holocaust and everything, and coming from a nontraditional family, a single parent family, I understood what oppression could look like. I wanted to be a part of relieving that, or serving to prevent that.”
Inspired by his grandfather's sacrifices in the service, Cruse joined the Military Police and served at Fort Riley. From there, he signed on with the Topeka Police Department, until tragedy struck the nation with the fall of the Twin Towers.
“I sat there in a little bit of confusion, and dismay," he said. "I felt a lot of emotions watching it. It was a tragic, tragic day. It was our generation’s Pearl Harbor in my opinion. At that moment, I went and reenlisted.”
Following that reenlistment, Cruse served in various roles across the country and abroad.
"The first assignment was Wolf Creek nuclear facility," Cruse said, "we had to secure that obviously. From there I went to Fort Riley again except as an instructor for people going to Bosnia. I provided instruction on how to search people, vehicles, equipment and so forth. I went to Kosovo, this was all in support of the result of 9/11. I was a military Police liaison for the Kosovo police department.”
If that wasn't enough, Cruse worked along Civil Affairs in Kosovo, ran the AC-130 Airborne Communications Crew, and served as an Assistant Convoy Security Commander, moving supplies and route reconnaissance from Turkey down through Iraq.
“I took a lot of pride in what I did," Cruse said. "Getting to go through while I was in Iraq or Kosovo, and dealing with people that had experienced oppression and fear, getting to see the change. The change in their expressions and their behaviors. We made a positive impact.”
Through his 21 years of service and countless military positions he served in, there's one area Cruse feels doesn't get the recognition that's deserved.
“The biggest overlooked things in service and sacrifice is the sacrifices that our spouses make," he said. "I had been in Iraq over 16 months, a year in Kosovo, a lot of time gone from the family, which placed a lot on my wife. Being a caregiver, and also having to replace my role as the father. My wife sacrificed a lot, and anything that I have every accomplished would not have been possible without her.”
At the end of his military service, Cruse followed in his grandfather's footsteps even further, returning to law enforcement. He retired from the Topeka Police Department in May of 2023, after 25 years in the service, working across the violent crimes unit, community policing and crime scene investigations.
