As a Lions Club member, he is usually ahead of his fellow club members in planning their charitable projects. Ross is known for his boundless energy and for a wide-ranging knowledge that he uses every day in the many roles he plays, as full-time manager and co-owner of Caney Creek Estates, as co-owner for SWARK.Today who also works as videographer and cameraman with the livestream teams, and as a husband and dad. He attributes his ability to handle all this to what he learned in his time serving the country in the U.S. Army Infantry and the Arkansas National Guard.
Mark Ross’s journey to military service began with the encouragement, sometimes the challenge, of friends and family in Magnolia and Hope. While in his twenties, Ross decided to join, dared by those who doubted he would go through with it.
“I had several friends here that had joined. And my brother-in-law joined. He was in the Magnolia unit. And every time I'd mention it, they would say, ‘You ain't gonna do that.’ And people who know me know, if they dare me to do something, or they challenge me, I'm pretty much going to step up to the plate and do it. That was in 1989,” he said.
The training itself, as you’d expect, was no picnic. His seniority over his peers won him no favors. “I was just like everybody else going to Camp Robinson, doing three-second rushes and get-down-on-the- ground-and-get-back-up,” Ross explained. “It's just really rough on the knees, and Camp Robinson has nothing but big rocks.”
His determination kept pushing him through tough days during his years in uniform, whether in basic training at Fort Benning (where he earned the nickname “grandpa” for being the oldest in his unit at 26) or in the field as an infantryman or as medic. In the latter capacity, he worked in base hospitals in Iraq and often travelled on desert roads to help the wounded in fighting zones. He even did one stint in New Orleans after one of the worst disasters in American history.
Ross spent his first eight years in the Army infantry, but promotion within the infantry was rare then, so Ross accepted a friend’s advice to shift to combat medic in the Arkansas National Guard, a decision that would send him into harm’s way but in a different role.
To become a Combat Medic, he underwent extensive training, attending U.S. Army Field Medical School in San Antonio and was stationed in Charleston, Arkansas. He served in Operation Enduring Freedom, which was America’s military response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Then in 2003, he was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Once in Kuwait and then Iraq, Ross’s responsibilities grew. He trained in desert conditions, worked in troop medical clinics, and treated mass casualties, performing triage, and, under Geneva Convention rules, sometimes prioritizing more severely wounded enemies over less-endangered injured allied soldiers—a hard test of medical ethics and personal integrity.
On the way back from Ross’ first Iraq deployment, his unit’s plane had a mechanical failure, stranding them for a week in Sicily, where he and his crew waited for a part to come in and experienced quite a bit of local hospitality.
“The first night we got there, it was late and they were already closing up, sweeping up the front. This one guy had a really nice restaurant, and said ‘Have you all eaten? You look like you need something.’ And he went back, told his cook to fire the stove back up, and they fixed us a great, great meal,” Ross said. He also got to hike on and around Mount Aetna.
When he returned from this 14-month deployment that began in 2003 and lasted into late 2004, his unit was called to northern Arkansas to deal with ice storms and, at one point, was transferred to New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where his unit provided medical relief for six months. In 2006, Ross’ unit was deployed to the 213th Combat Army Surgical Hospital, trained first at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, then got further trained and acclimated in Kuwait.
After they arrived at Balad Air Force Base, Ross oversaw clinics serving multinational forces and managed everything from ER operations to daily patient care, averaging from 40 to 60 patients a day. He adapted as circumstances demanded, even transitioning from combat medic to air medic and traveling across the desert on critical missions when helicopters couldn’t fly.
Ross’s second Iraq deployment, which placed him there from April 2006 to September 2007, included many close calls and, on one occasion, much worse: a series of mortar attacks destroyed ambulances and the shrapnel wounded members of his team. In one of the blasts, Ross was thrown into a sandbag wall.
“As we were leaving the medical supply, going to the water point, the medical supply got hit and we went for just our basic supplies, the oxygen tanks. The other one got hit. So on our way to back to the troop medical clinic, we jumped out of our Humvees and ambulances and ran to the bunker. That's where two of my guys got hit by shrapnel pretty bad. I did not get hit by shrapnel; I got thrown about 30 feet into a sandbag wall, which is just like brick after being there for two or three years.”
He sustained traumatic brain and spinal injuries, afterward experiencing seizures, and other lasting medical problems.
Returning home did not mean the end of struggle. Because of the seizures, which he described as blackouts, he was unable to drive for nearly eight years. The support of his community was instrumental. Hope residents helped him acquire a service dog, Snickers, trained to alert him before seizures. He described this period and what finally improved things for him.
“Whenever I would have a seizure, I would be confined to a wheelchair for pretty much the rest of the day or long periods of time,” Ross recalled. “I got a service dog that helped me with the seizures. I have not had one of those types of seizures since 2017 after going to the Mayo Clinic for some treatments in Jacksonville, Florida.” Snickers the dog is still among us. Ross provided a recent picture which you can see in the series below this article.
With discipline and help from the VA, Ross said he was able to avoid dealing with his PTSD in the destructive ways other veterans fell into. “I did not resort to drugs or alcohol. I was one of the guys that instead of going down the drug and alcohol lane, I chose to take VA assistance and medical assistance and mental health assistance,” he said.
His injuries are still with him, but Ross says he lives to express his gratitude for surviving with his family, his limbs, and his resolve to do good for his hometown.
After deployment, reacclimating to stateside life was slow. Ross continued to serve in his unit until 2010, even as his wife Alicia had to drive him to drills. He faced the lingering effects of war, including vivid dreams and night-time episodes when his family witnessed him acting out old trauma in his sleep. Yet, Ross channeled his energy into improving Hope, Arkansas, serving on various boards and commissions, mainly as a way to return what the community generously gave him.
Ross views his experience in the military as essential to what made him what he is, training with multinational partners, providing first aid and medicine in a war zone, and surviving the hazards and the aftermath of deployment. He challenges younger generations to embrace service, believing it instills discipline and appreciation for the freedoms so many sacrificed to protect.
His service goes on, whether it’s in making sure the city of Hope’s tax dollars bring the most benefit to its citizens, asking for and getting the big item donations to the Lions Club’s biggest fundraising event, its upcoming Christmas auction or whether helping to organize the upcoming Veterans Day parade, which will take place Monday downtown starting at 5:30 p.m.
Ross found a strength in meeting his challenges. He freely lends it to the rest of us who have benefited from his wise counsel and who have tried to keep up with his labor, which isn’t easy but which, in his good humor and storytelling, Ross makes fun. We salute him this upcoming Veterans Week.
Below are some photos Ross provided, including a recent photo of Snickers the dog.
