Hundreds embrace injured soldier

LOWELL, Mich. (WOOD) - For seven months, Sgt. Shane Scherer has been recovering from a bomb blast in Afghanistan that left him severely injured. But now, he and his fiancee, a Lowell native, will spend the holidays with her family.

The couple landed at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport on Monday evening and was welcomed by hundreds of community members who lined the concourse for the big arrival.

Scherer greeted a crowd of people, most of whom he had never met.

"I was just super overwhelmed," he said. "I was like, I can't believe this is actually happening."

Scherer and Jacqueline Bennett met in San Diego. Bennett, who graduated from Lowell High in 2000, moved there to work with kids in need after receiving her masters degree in social work from Western Michigan University.

He had recently joined the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan. On May 29, 2009, just 12 days before he was to return to the U.S., Scherer was near a Taliban bomb blast at his military base.

He suffered a severed artery, severe damage to his right hand, a major brain injury and his body was covered with shrapnel. Scherer was not expected to live.

But in one of the 20 surgeries he has had since the blast, doctors removed a large part of his skull to protect his brain from swelling.

Scherer eventually was transported to the U.S., and has been recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the VA Hospital in his native California.

Through it all, his attitude has helped his recovery, and he hopes to return to college to get a masters degree.

"If I had to go back and do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing," Scherer said. "It was (the support from Jacqueline). This is how I got through it."

Bennett quit her job to be by his side while he recovered in the California hospital.

"He's a hero," Bennett said. "I love him."

She and Scherer postponed their wedding until June 2010.

"It left me a few more months to try and make it a little more extravagant," Bennett said.

Her brother, Jake, is a senior at Lowell High School, and her mother is a school employee. Scherer has never been to Michigan until this trip.

After the holiday, Scherer and Bennett will live in Washington state, where Scherer still has some therapy to complete. But there's a lot planned for him while he is in West Michigan. On Wednesday, there will be a special ceremony for Scherer in Lowell where he is expected to receive the key to the city.