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Suffering head and back injuries he returned to Charlottesville, Va., some 130 miles away from his family and brothers and sisters of Local 596. While recovering at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Duryea, a journeyman wireman, has seen an outpouring of support from his fellow IBEW members.

Last year’s combat will be his last on active duty following a long career. In 1986, when Duryea joined the National Guard, he was just married and had two kids and joined for the extra income. “Once I got in [to the military] I liked the work,” Duryea said of his assignments with the Army National Guard 363rd Military Police.

Duryea’s first overseas duty was in Desert Storm where he was stationed in Saudi Arabia. His second tour was a one-year assignment for Homeland Defense in Pennsylvania at an Army depot. Duryea was activated for a third time in 2003 and was stationed in Iraq until 2004. Last year he spent about a year in Iraq until he was injured.

In 2010, his team was responsible for providing security to supply trucks, he said:

We would get up early and travel to a town south of Bagdad to fill our trucks and then travel back north of the city to provide supplies to a military post there.

They drove 150 miles in each direction between the two supply towns every day, seven days a week.

Though grueling and repetitious, the schedule provided Nick with a unique look at one of the most tumultuous areas on our globe:

When I first arrived in Iraq back in 2003 it was a country of no laws, no police, no red lights, no one to call in an emergency. But when I went back there was infrastructure in place: there are brand new schools, electricity, cell phone towers. There is a good and bad to these improvements, but at a minimum it is 50 percent better than what it was just seven years ago.

Duryea said:

Since joining the IBEW I was never laid off when I was deployed, they would put me back to work at either the job I was on before leaving or on the job the company I was working for was currently working on. The IBEW has been awesome as far as being a solider; they have been a big supporter of mine.

Said Local 596 Business Manager Shane Ferguson:

We always tried to take care of Nick when he was serving, whether it was sending out a flier asking for supplies for him and his company or staying in touch with his family to make sure they had everything they needed. We also would freeze his health benefits so that he would not need to get recertified every time he came back to work.

Local 596’s support of Duryea has not waivered since his return, said Duryea:

I have so many brothers who sent me tuna, jerky, gum, magazines, goodies, shampoo, and deodorant, anything I needed. They never forgot about me while I was over there and they are still there for me now after coming back, we keep in touch through email and phone calls.

Constantly improving through therapy, Duryea said he is where he was before his concussion and is now primarily dealing with the lingering effects of his back injury.

Duryea’s support system extends beyond his local:

Local 968 of Parkersburg, W.Va., was instrumental in sending me packages and I was not even in their local. A few of the guys who I’ve worked closely with in that local call me to check in on my recovery and to see how I am doing.

As soon as his rehabilitation allows Duryea will return to work, he said:

As soon as they let me out of my recovery program I hope to go back to work for the IBEW and Local 596 with my brothers and sisters who were there for me while I was serving.

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Local Support Makes an Impact in Injured Member’s Recovery

Last year Clarksburg, W.Va., Local 596 member Nick Duryea was injured while on active duty in Iraq. The Humvee Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class was traveling in was hit by an anti-tank grenade. “The blast wave went through the Humvee,” he said.