Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Artem Bunin is a snowboarding enthusiast surrounded by desert.

Deployed in Iraq since last spring, the Burnsville resident is looking forward to a winter of North American powder instead of Middle Eastern sand.



Staff Sgt. Artem Bunin of Burnsville stood in front of ruins March 21 while on a visit with 34th Combat Aviation Brigade Soldiers to the ancient Iraqi city of Ur. Submitted photo

But Bunin’s latest tour of duty, as a paralegal with the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Combat Aviation Brigade [the command element of aviation] Task Force 34, is an experience he wouldn’t trade.

Stationed at a base about 20 miles north of Baghdad,  Bunin is gaining experience sure to impress potential employers when he pursues paralegal work back home.

“I always learn from people,” said Bunin, who is aiming for a career in criminal law. “I’m like a sponge.”

Born in Russia, Bunin was 13 when his parents, both engineers, moved to New York. He moved to Minnesota in 2005 to be near his mother.

Bunin has an associate’s degree from Normandale Community College and is 20 credits shy of a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Minnesota.

But he wasn’t always such a scholar. Bunin said he had trouble graduating from high school because of behavioral problems. It was during those tough times that he enrolled in the Army.

“The Army straightened me right up,” Bunin said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It was the discipline it instilled in me.”

“You start thinking about a team,” he said, “and being part of a team, you start caring about people around you — the guys to your left and right.”

Needing to fulfill an eight-year obligation, Bunin joined the Guard after serving his three years of regular Army duty.

“With two wars going on, I decided to join the Guard to get benefits for school,” he said. “I knew my time would come along for the deployment anyway. The Guard is a great thing. It helps you to stay in shape, and there’s the great-looking uniform.”

Bunin doesn’t claim to be an authority on the state of security in Iraq today.
“I’m not on patrol in the cities and towns, so I can’t say what is going on,” he said.

“The general feeling is we are actually doing pretty good,” he said. “Compared to my previous experience — this is my second tour — it is relatively safe out here.”

Bunin said he has two jobs: helping commanders uphold discipline and order, and advising Soldiers on legal matters such as power of attorney and U.S. citizenship.

“One of my tasks is to help my trial commander conduct a court marshal,” Bunin said.

“We prosecute (offenders) and send them to jail. Luckily, [the 34th CAB doesn't] have many offenders out here.”

The live courtroom experience is invaluable, Bunin said.

“I’ve got the best team right now,” he said. “It’s the diversity of the group. I have four paralegals on my team, and they are all from different states — two of them are from Minnesota — and they specialize in different things.”

During nonwork hours, Bunin takes U of M classes online and stays buff, working out twice daily — cardio in the morning and weightlifting in the evening. He follows a nutrition plan and tries to resist the Baskin-Robbins ice cream in the cafeteria.

What would he tell friends back home?

“I want to say I’m coming home soon, and it’s time to party,” Bunin said.