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Board Room to Battlefield

The son of First Sergeant Wade Duffey, a former combat engineer for the U.S. Army, Steven Duffey thought he was destined for a life in the military. But with a back injury in high school came the disappointing realization that he would never be eligible to wear a serviceman’s uniform.

Refusing to despair, Duffey forged a new, civilian career, one that had him working for a Columbus, Ga. advertising and public relations firm. Life was good, though perhaps not particularly exciting. But then the advertising firm was bought out. Duffey found himself out of a job.

The layoff turned out to be good timing, both for Duffey and Joint Military Development Services (JMDS), a privately held company specializing in weapons familiarization and cultural awareness training. First joining up as a project manager, Duffey immediately started attending specialized classes and practical exercises – a sort of basic training, if you will – which has now resulted in his training soldiers in the detection and disassembling of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

“Now I serve my country as I had originally planned as a child,” Duffey said. “Because hopefully the soldiers can see how this [work] influences their coming home alive.”