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11/13/2024 08:30 AMEvery year on Veterans Day, we get the privilege of celebrating the brave men and women who have fought for the United States and thank them for their service. Madison resident Dr. Jerry Curran not only helped people during his time serving in the U.S. military, but he continues to affect the lives of both veterans and other people to this day.
After attending a military high school, Jerry attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation, Jerry worked in many different battalions, eventually being stationed in Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) in Texas. He would continue to work in high-ranking positions, leading to his deployment on the border of Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in 1990.
Once he came back from Iraq, Jerry attended medical school at New York Medical College. After graduating, Jerry completed his army residency in emergency medicine back at Fort Hood and later became an emergency room doctor at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, where he gained experience working with soldiers who were suffering from various types of trauma after having worked in airborne operations. Jerry was one of the first people stationed in Afghanistan following the tragic events of 9/11, serving as part of the 261st Medical Battalion in support of its operations.
“My active duty was then expired, and that is when I moved to Connecticut,” Jerry says. “When I moved, I joined the Connecticut Army National Guard…I was working at Camp Rowland [now Camp Weicker in Niantic] and, in 2004 I was attached to the 118th Medical Battalion for deployment after the initial invasion of Iraq.”
Jerry worked as a physician at the Balad Air Base, working alongside many of the same doctors whom he had previously trained.
Upon his second return from Iraq, Jerry served as a commander of the 118th Medical Battalion from 2005-’10, including a third deployment in Iraq in 2009 with over 100 other soldiers from the Connecticut National Guard.
“We acted as a headquarters for an area support medical battalion, distributed in 36 different locations all across Iraq,” he says. “As the commander, I had the opportunity to travel and conduct missions with my subordinate doctors…which included the psychiatric mission…which helped with the mental health of the soldiers in the country.”
Jerry’s service in the military came to an end in 2011 after he had served his country for over 20 years. At this point, Jerry started to work as an ER doctor and was able to be with his wife Laura and their three children. Jerry thanks his wife for her unwavering support of him and his work.
“I have a wife that has put up with all of this for the last 27 years,” he says. “When I left from Fort Bragg to go to Afghanistan, Laura was nine months pregnant with my son...She understood that I needed to go and get the bad guys.”
Jerry currently works two jobs as an ER doctor in Connecticut. One of his jobs is part-time at VA hospital, and his other job is a full-time position working night shifts at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford. In both jobs, Jerry works with people who are dealing with different kinds of trauma, and he’s made it his mission to continue to help and support his fellow veterans.
Jerry is also a member of VFW Post #2096 in Madison, where he holds a high position in the organization, as well as the American Legion, in an effort to stay connected with both the members of his community and the other veterans around him. Jerry even spent part of his Veterans Day weekend with the VFW collecting donations at a Stop & Shop to raise money for scholarships for students in both Madison and the surrounding area.
“I wanted to continue the mission of the VFW,” Jerry says. “We want to help people to be aware of the contributions of veterans to our society in both our military service and after we finish our service.”