County recognizes US Army Captain

When U.S. Army Captain Michael Torok helped save the life an Iraqi boy who was badly burned in a cooking accident, he never dreamed that the boy would end up at the Shriner’s Burns Institute in Cincinnati – or show up in his Bethel home at his June 28 welcome home party.

“That was phenomenal,” Torok said at his recognition ceremony held at the Clermont County Commissioner’s meeting July 15. “This very special boy should not even be alive, but he was very lucky.”

Torok, 43, who returned home to Clermont County after a year-long tour of duty in Iraq last month, is an intensive care nurse stationed with the 325th combat hospital in Al Asad and Balad, Iraq.

“We did a lot more than taking care of wounded Americans,” Torok said. “Ninety-five percent of our ICU patients were Iraqi civilians, like the little boy who is recuperating in Cincinnati right now.”

Torok, a Bethel-Tate High School graduate, has made a career out of the military, first enlisting in the 147th Infantry in 1981. In 1988, he took a 10-year break and has now been in the Army reserves since 1997.

Now that he is home, Torok, who said that he is very proud of his "service to the country," said that his immediate plans are to integrate back into his civilian life, continue working on his doctorate degree in business, ride his horses, and spend time with his wife Lisa, and their two daughters, Hannah and Maria.

"I would like to thank all those people who supported me in so many different ways," Torok said. "It feels very humbling to be recognized and honored here today for just doing my job. But I do not think that what I do is anything extraordinary by any stretch of one's imagination. But it sure feels great to be home."