Boysun Serves For 26 Years In National Guard

Veterans Day Salute

Nufry Boysun started his military service a little bit later than most individuals do, but the amount of years served and his various deployments certainly made up for it.

His time with the National Guard covered 26 years and seven months. “A lot of friends were in. It was kind of a challenge,” Boysun said of why he joined the Guard. “I wanted to serve the community and the country.”

When he joined, he was already married and 31 years old. He said the maximum age to join was 32 years old. “I was the oldest soldier,” he added.

Boysun’s service included a year and a half, 2005-2006, in Alaska to serve as law enforcement on the Fort Richardson base. He said it was hard to be gone that long from his wife, Sherry, but they were able to visit each other a few times during that stretch.

A tougher stint was being in Afghanistan for a year during 20122013 when he was deployed as a combat engineer. Part of his duties was finding improvised explosive devices, IEDs, on roads.

“I got blew up twice and found 17 IEDs while I was there,” Boysun said.

He noted because the vehicle that he drove, a Husky, featured ground penetrating radar, he wasn’t injured during his service there.

Another highlight of his time in the National Guard was building a runway in Germany for drone planes during 2017.

A duty that he appreciated was being on the Honored Guard for military funerals. He did that service for 10 years.

“It was an honor to do it for the soldiers,” Boysun said. “It was tough because you see the grieving of the spouses.”

He is proud that his two stepsons had military careers. Chris Levitt was a pilot for the Navy and Aaron Levitt served in the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

Boysun encourages others to consider joining the National Guard or other military branches.

“It’s a good experience,” he said. “The deployments were tough, but maybe even tougher for the spouses at home.”

Boysun, who is a member of the VFW and American Legion, said having a spouse at home made a big difference for him while he was serving.

“You have something to look forward coming home to,” he explained.