Trading one uniform for another

Shoshone County Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Demery has been serving his country and his community since he has legally been allowed to.

With the goal of one day having a career in law enforcement, Demery, a Post Falls native, joined the United States Army and left for Fort Benning, Georgia at the age of 18- just 12 days after his graduation from Post Falls High School.

There he completed basic training and airborne school, then quickly got into the Ranger Indoctrination Program (otherwise known as RIP).

Once he completed RIP, Demery became apart of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Ranger Regiment, part of the Army's Special Operation Command, is primarily tasked with directly engaging the enemy with the objective of capturing or killing high value targets.

In 2008, Demery was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq as part of a rifle team.

It was there that he and his team participated in raids that resulted in neutralizing several high profile enemy targets- many of whom were featured in the “Iraqi most wanted playing cards” that were distributed to soldiers in theater.

Looking back now, Demery explained that this deployment was unique compared to the next three that he would go on in Afghanistan because of the environment and the nature of the mission.

His time in Iraq was mostly confined to urban combat where he and his team were on the offensive, seeking out the enemy.

Over his next three deployments, these factors would change.

Upon the completion of this first deployment, Demery then went through, and completed, Ranger School in 2009.

He wasted no time after and went on his second deployment to the Kandahar region of Afghanistan with Ranger Regiment once again.

The mission was the same as the first deployment, seeking out high profile targets, but the settings for this go around were a bit different.

“More mountainous terrain,” Demery explained, “it's not like Baghdad which was kind of a bigger city with smaller (operation) areas.”

After four to six months in county, Demery and his fellow soldiers left Afghanistan.

Eight short months of training later, he was back again in 2010.

This third deployment, where he was mostly stationed at Forward Operating Base Salerno, was an especially eventful (and slightly frustrating) one.

Demery explains that one night during this tour, he and his fellow soldiers were searching for a target by clearing compounds in a specific area.

After clearing several of these locations where the target could possibly be hiding and talking to locals, the soldiers were told that the target and his entire family were hiding out in specific compound.

Due to the possibility of their being innocents in the compound, the soldiers were forced to assault the location themselves rather than call in air support.

As they attempted to enter the compound, an enemy combatant behind the front gate detonated explosives on his person that then detonated a bus packed with more ordinance.

Although no U.S. personnel were killed, Demery said that several were injured and maimed.

Upon the completion of this third deployment, Demery came back to the United States in 2011 and was faced with the choice of reenlisting or starting on his path toward a career in law enforcement.

Since Idaho does not allow individuals to serve in a law enforcement capacity until they are 21, he decided to reenlist and head to Germany with the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

In 2012, Demery went with this new unit to Afghanistan for his last deployment.

He explained that of all his deployments, “this one was a shock for me.”

The reason for this shock was that the nature of his mission had changed drastically from his previous deployments.

Going from taking an offensive role and taking the fight to the enemy leadership, his mission was now to “win over the hearts and minds” of the local populace and take a defensive stance.

Attacks on the base he was stationed at were a daily occurrence due to its proximity to Highway 1.

“We ended up getting hit pretty hard that deployment, 173rd as a whole, we lost a couple guys and friends,” Demery said.

“We were taking mortars almost every day,” he added.

Demery and his soldier would perform deterrent and presence patrols in an effort to make a show of force, but not being able to actually go out and directly engage the enemy was frustrating.

This tour reached its climax for Demery when he and his soldiers were tasked with shutting down a small U.S. base in a rural area of the country.

Demery assisted in packing up equipment and emplacements under the cover of night that were normally used for cover.

The next morning, enemy combatants began shelling the mostly packed up base.

With little to no cover available, the soldiers quickly jumped in their armored MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles for protection.

Demery would earn a purple heart this day when a mortar round struck the nearby aid station and sent shrapnel in all directions.

Though he was inside the MRAP, the shrapnel pierced the armored vehicle and struck Demery in the wrist.

Luckily, no nerves or tendons were severed thanks in part to a memorial bracelet he was wearing at the time.

Demery spent a short amount of time in Germany getting treated for his injury, but then very quickly went back to Afghanistan to finish the rest of his deployment.

The remainder of his enlistment was spent training soldiers in Southeastern Europe during the Ukrainian crisis with Russia and traveling around the continent.

He was honorably discharged from U.S. Army in late 2014 as a Staff Sergeant.

Demery returned to North Idaho with all of the experience he had accrued during his time in the military to finally get into the field of law enforcement.

With some criminal justice classes under his belt from North Idaho College, he applied for a position at the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) in early 2016 and was hired on in April.

He currently holds the rank of Sergeant and is in charge of the Search and Rescue team.

As a North Idaho native and avid outdoors man, Demery really enjoys being here and feels that his military experience helps him in this career.

Detailing out his current responsibilities with SCSO, Demery said “I got put in charge of search and rescue, been helping the civilian organization with that. Also went through FTO school (Field training officer), so I'm one of the ones training new people- which the military helps with that.”

Though it's a different uniform, many skills do overlap.

“Yea, it's a different occupation, but there are a lot of similarities at certain points,” he said.

Almost approaching the one and a half year mark, Demery is happy that he finally reached his goal and has no complaints about his new profession.

“Overall it's been real positive here.”