First US airman to receive Purple Heart in Afghanistan now excels in ‘special operations’ as a physician assistant

Now a physician assistant at UCHealth, this war hero helps patients having total knee and hip replacement surgeries.
Oct. 29, 2024
Michael Sciortino, a physician assistant at UCHealth Orthopedic Centr - Grandview, served 24 years in the military. Photo by Chuck Bigger for UCHealth.
Michael Sciortino, a physician assistant at UCHealth Orthopedic Center – Grandview, served 24 years in the military. Photo by Chuck Bigger for UCHealth.

Michael Sciortino knows special operations.

A month after the mayhem of Sept. 11, 2001, Sciortino, an Air Force veteran who is now a physician assistant at UCHealth, found himself in a battle in Afghanistan that is chronicled in books and movies.

Sciortino has the distinction of being the first U.S. airman to receive the Purple Heart in Afghanistan for injuries sustained when a 2,000-pound bomb dropped 40 feet away from him and launched him 40 feet in the air.

“I basically have a badge that says I got lucky,’’ said Sciortino, who works alongside Dr. Jordan Schaeffer, an orthopedic surgeon who does total knee and hip replacements at UCHealth Orthopedic Center – Grandview.

Sciortino comes from a long line of family members who have served. As Veterans Day approaches, he thinks of all the service members who have valiantly served their country.

“It is just reflecting back,’’ he said. “I have always been in awe of all the people before me. You hear their stories, and you just want to be part of that group of people who went above and beyond.’’

Michael Sciortino is the first US Airman to receive a Purple Heart in Afghanistan. He's now a physician assistant at UCHealth. Photo: Chuck Bigger for UCHealth.
Michael Sciortino is the first U.S. Airman to receive a Purple Heart in Afghanistan. He’s now a physician assistant at UCHealth. Photo: Chuck Bigger for UCHealth.

Sciortino’s story is a pretty good one, too. At 18, he left Oxford, Connecticut, then a one-stoplight town with 5,000 people to join the Air Force in February 1994. He started as a medical technician and worked in that field in the ICU at a hospital. There, he encountered a couple of combat controllers, guys who told Sciortino about all the cool things they did like jumping out of airplanes, scuba diving and motorcycle riding. They shot weapons and learned how to control air traffic and call in strikes.

Sciortino was hooked. He transitioned from his job as a medical technician to special operations. He completed a rigorous two-year training course and graduated from combat control in 2000. A year later, planes hit the twin towers, killing nearly 3,000 people.

“We were supposed to do some training later that evening – land navigation training – but during the day, I got a call, ‘hey, be at work in three hours.’’’ Later that day, he arrived at Hurlbert Field, Florida, headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command. Leaders told the airmen to get ready to go to Afghanistan.

Three weeks later, he and about 30 to 40 people – all special ops men from the Air Force, Army and Navy – arrived in Uzbekistan. Three weeks later, they attached to a renowned Afghan warlord – Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, then the second in command behind Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan. His nickname: “The butcher.’’

“Back then, warlords ruled everything, and every warlord had their own little piece of the pie that they were working on … We linked up with Gen. Dostum in efforts to rid the Taliban in specific regions.’’

Sciortino and the other men began their trek into Afghanistan on horses, a rudimentary means of transportation, but the only one possible. They followed Dostum and the Northern Alliance into Afghanistan, on narrow trails through the mountainous terrain. Sitting on wooden saddles, the men traversed a dangerous path. Any misstep, and they’d plunge 900 to 1,000 feet off a sheer cliff.

“You couldn’t take vehicles or helicopters; you had to ride on horseback. So, we are on these little, narrow trails and we are following Gen. Dostum to each town, and our objective was to get to Mazar-i-Sharif, the major northern city of Afghanistan,’’ he said.

Michael Sciortino, the first US Airman to receive a Purple Heart in Afghanistan, is now a physician assistant at UCHealth. Photo by Chuck Bigger for UCHealth.
Michael Sciortino, the first U.S. Airman to receive a Purple Heart in Afghanistan, is now a physician assistant at UCHealth. Photo by Chuck Bigger for UCHealth.

Mazar-i-Sharif had a large runway that allied forces wanted to control. When they did, planes with supplies to replenish friendly forces could easily access Afghanistan.

“Most of us that arrived in Afghanistan had never ridden a horse,’’ Sciortino said with a chuckle. “Our team leader grew up on a ranch, and he was a really good horseback rider, but the rest of us … we didn’t have any horseback riding experience.’’

The contingent of 36 U.S. forces each carried a full combat load: 310 rounds of 5.56, grenades, a grenade launcher, 9 mm pistol, and food – MRE’s and water.

Years later, in the orthopedic practice where he works, Sciortino reflected on the ‘how did I get here?’ moment with light-hearted humor: “Good thing I was young and didn’t have the wherewithal to know about how bad things could be.’’

Sciortino’s horse soldier team, accompanied by the Northern Alliance troops from Afghanistan, stopped in little towns, freed them from the Taliban, and continued along their way to Mazar-i-Sharif.

“We would ride on horseback, get to a town, free it from Taliban. We were on the mountaintops and then once that town was transitioned to Northern Alliance, we would ride to the next town.’’

When allied forces dropped bombs on Taliban-occupied towns, the Taliban would rush out of the towns. On the outskirts of town, hundreds of men on horseback from the Northern Alliance waited. They carried swords and old muskets and fierce battles between the northern Alliance and Taliban seemed almost Biblical in nature.

Outside Mazar-i-Sharif, Sciortino’s group and high-level U.S. military brass set up in an old Turkish schoolhouse. At the time, word traveled like lightning that the Americans were near, and that they had sophisticated weapons, airplanes and bombs.

UCHealth strong supporter of our nation’s military

UCHealth is designated as a Military Friendly Employer, providing programs, support and advocacy for veterans and military spouses. UCHealth has received numerous awards for its support of veterans. UCHealth also supports the military in communities.

  • Military Friendly Employer: Silver
  • Military Friendly Spouse Employer: Top Ten (10)
  • Military Friendly Supplier Diversity Program: Top Ten (4)
  • Military Friendly Brand: Top Ten (10)
  • Military Friendly Company: Top Ten (10)

UCHealth’s various military affiliated initiatives:

  • Annual Stand Down, helping veterans experiencing homelessness: In October 2023 and 2024, UCHealth participated in the Annual Stand Down, community-wide events in Colorado Springs to help veterans experiencing homelessness.  When funding for the transitional housing program, operated by Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center, was in jeopardy, UCHealth and the Memorial Hospital Foundation stepped up to fill the financial need. As a result, nine veterans experiencing homelessness moved into a local hotel and spent 30 days in an immersive program aimed at helping them find work and attain permanent housing.
  • Veteran mapping initiative:  UCHealth led initiatives at Roselawn Cemetery and Imperial Cemetery in Pueblo to locate and document every veteran gravesite in the cemeteries. More than 3,100 veteran locations were mapped. American flags were placed at each veteran gravesite.
  • UCHealth participated in the Special Forces Foundation Ruck March, an event aimed to help feed homeless veterans in Colorado.
  • Wreaths Across America: Placing wreaths on all veteran final resting sites on the second Saturday of December to “remember, honor and teach.”
  • 9/11 Day Meal Pack event: UCHealth was a sponsor of this year’s National 9/11 Day Meal Pack at Empower Field in Denver. UCHealth had 55 volunteers (11 of them veterans) participate to collectively pack 8 million meals in 20 cities on Sept. 11, 2024.
  • UCHealth has several initiatives to support military workforce:
    • Veteran sponsorship program
    • Hiring our Heroes
    • Career Skills Program
    • DoD Skill Bridge
    • Career fairs

The Taliban began to flee Mazar-i-Sharif and then, without explanation, many of them returned to attack Mazar-i-Sharif.

“There was a small group of us at Mazar-i-Sharif, so now we’ve got this big counterattack. We get this report of 600 hardened al-Qaida members. We’ve got this big number of forces that are coming back toward us.

“So our team leader is Maj. Mitchell … and he’s like ‘hey, we got to meet these guys up.’ So, Gen Dostum is still with us, so we go through this open field, and we’re on the north side of this road and there’s like 600 Taliban and al-Qaida guys across from us in vehicles.

“I don’t know if you remember those old pictures, but you’ve got Toyota Tacomas and Nissan Frontiers and about six Afghanis in the back with rocket propelled grenades hanging off. That’s exactly what we were staring at. So, we’re like ‘oh man, so how’s this going to go down?’’’

Sciortino scampered up to a ridge line and called back to the Air Force. “’Hey, we need some show of force.’ So the Air Force sent us two B-52s and they did giant halos over the air. We thought, if this turns into something bad, we’ve got bombs that we can drop on them.’’

The show of force worked, and the Taliban leader agreed to meet with Gen. Dostum.

“So, after a bunch of garbling and talking back and forth, they all somehow surrendered,’’ Sciortino recalled of the Taliban.

Allied forces rounded up their prisoners; they bound their arms and loaded them on wagons.

“It was customary back then, that if you show respect for an Afghani, you don’t search them,’’ Sciortino said.

The prisoners were taken to Qala-I-Jangi, a giant mud-and-brick fort about five miles away. They were placed in the southern half of the fort.

Many prisoners gathered in the basement of a little pink schoolhouse that was inside the fort. The Northern Alliance kept watch over the prisoners from the perch of 40-foot walls that made up the exterior of the fort.

A CIA agent, Mike Spann, made his way into the southern half of the fort to question prisoners and gather intel. At the time, an American who became widely known as Johnny Taliban was one of the men held there.

An Afghan prisoner who was in the basement of the pink schoolhouse pulled the pin on a grenade, blowing himself up to cause commotion. Taliban poured out from the basement, and they beat Spann to death, the first American to die in the war in Afghanistan.

“We were back at the Turkish schoolhouse, and we heard fire going on and we were like, ‘holy cow, there’s a war going on.’ So, we get our guys, and we head to the fort, and we had to get to the north side, so we walk up on these walls and we’re seeing all of these gunshots and gunfire going on, the prisoners are shooting everybody.

“So, I’m at the fort, I’m on the radio, I’m calling back to our command: ‘We’re going to need some planes here to squash this.’ Little did we know, but there was an ammo depot on the other side of the fort, so now we have about 400 guys that are armed to the teeth. They are shooting everybody … it ended up being a pretty big battle.’’

Sciortino called for air support.

“So, we had two fast movers (F-14s) come in, two fighter jets come in and they released a bomb and instead of following the coordinates to the enemy site, the bomb came to our site.

“And that’s where I get my Purple Heart.’’

Sciortino and four green berets from the Army were injured in the Taliban uprising, which lasted from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, 2001. Sciortino suffered ruptured eardrums, facial burns and bumps and bruises.

“I fared out very well. I was really lucky, really lucky,’’ he said. “My time in Afghanistan was over at that point.’’

A movie – 12 Strong – was made and is available on Amazon Prime. Sciortino said the movie should have been called 36 Strong, since that’s how many made their way from Uzbekistan on horses. Two books – Horse Soldiers and First Casualty – also have been written about the first special operations battle in Afghanistan.

Sciortino was flown to Turkey, then Germany and back to the U.S. Back on home soil, he would pursue education through the military to become a physician assistant. In all, he spent more than 24 years in the Air Force. A conference room at the Regional Support Center is named in his honor.

Six years ago, Sciortino took a job at UCHealth with Dr. Schaeffer.

“I will see a variety of patient to include new patients, pre-op and post-op visits. Our primary focus is degenerative conditions of the hips and knees. During a clinic visit we will get an overall history of the condition, review imaging results, labs, etc., and depending on what we find, we will discuss all treatments to include surgery. When I’m not in the clinic, I’m in the operating room with Dr. Schaeffer, assisting in total hip or total knee replacement operations.’’

Working in medicine, he says, is deeply satisfying.

Michael Sciortino in Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of Michael Sciortino.
Michael Sciortino in Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of Michael Sciortino.

“As far as working in joint reconstruction, knowing that you are restoring a patient’s function in life is rewarding. We have folks who come in and say, ‘I was able to get back to golfing, hiking, taking a trip to see my family member without worrying about how much pain I am going to be in.’

“We hear those stories. So, after surgery, whether it’s weeks or months later, they always fill us in and we’re always happy to hear how they’re doing.’’

On occasion, Sciortino has the opportunity to share war stories with patients who have served in the Armed Forces. With five major military bases in the Colorado Springs area, many of the patients he talks to have terrific stories to tell.

When Sciortino shares his story, he speaks to his fellow veterans as if it were all just another day in the saddle.

About the author

Erin Emery is editor of UCHealth Today, a hub for medical news, inspiring patient stories and tips for healthy living. Erin spent years as a reporter for The Denver Post, Colorado Springs Gazette and Colorado Springs Sun. She was part of a team of Denver Post reporters who won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting.

Erin joined UCHealth in 2008, and she is awed by the strength of patients and their stories.