United States Army veteran Nicholas Hardy was born in Syracuse, New York and raised in Vestal. Nick enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately after 9/11 and attended basic training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, becoming at 13B, Cannon Crewmember. Nick attended basic airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia, and he was later assigned as a paratrooper to the 173rd Airborne Brigade – the Sky Soldiers – in Vincenza, Italy.
While serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Nick deployed to Iraq supporting combat operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. As part of Task Force Viking, he deployed as a member of the brigade’s advanced party, attached to the 10th Special Forces Group, fighting alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces in and around Erbil and Mosul. His unit also advanced with U.S. Army Special Forces securing control of the Kirkuk Airbase and the surrounding oilfields.
After his military service, Nick returned home to Binghamton, New York in 2008. He continued serving his community for 15 years as a Sergeant in the Binghamton Police Department and as a financial analyst on the Budget and Capital Improvements Team for Broome County Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Today, Nick is currently a Juris Doctor candidate at Syracuse University College of Law, where he is a member of the National Trial Team and Vice President of the Military and Veterans Law Society. He works directly with homeless and at-risk veterans as a student attorney in the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic.
Nick credits his mother, Cecelia; his wife, Kim; and his four children, Nicholas, Breana, Sophia, and Maria, as his greatest source of inspiration and strength in his continued service to others.
