Military Career
On graduation from secondary school in 1985, he enlisted in the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces (RSLMF) at the age of eighteen and was deployed for military training as a cadet officer at the Benguema Military Training Academy in Benguema, a town located just outside Freetown. After his training, he rose to the rank of junior officer in the Sierra Leone army at the young age of nineteen.
As a young ambitious soldier, Strasser was commissioned to a military barracks in Daru, Kailahun District in Eastern Sierra Leone in 1987 at the age of 19. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Foday Sankoh began their first attack on the 25 March 1991 in Buedu villages in Kailahun District. Strasser and other soldiers who were already in a military barracks in Kailahun, were sent to command and rout the rebellion against the RUF.
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