Leon Cederlind U.S. Marine Corps Army National Guard 1964-1970
Meet Leon “Lee” Cederlind a 73 year old U.S Marine who served from March 1964 to July 1970. He enlisted when he was 20 years of age because the draft for the Vietnam War was knocking on his door. After he went to bootcamp at Camp Pendleton, CA Lee became a Marine Aviation helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War in Vietnam and he did night medevac which is really dangerous. He saw combat a lot during his time being a pilot. Lee told me he would always count the bullet holes in the helicopter before every mission and they would recount when they got back to see how many new ones they got. He saved a lot of lives while serving our country in Vietnam. by Nate P.
Justin Dimmitt U.S. Navy 2006-2011
Meet Justin Dimmit, a 29 year old, Navy CB(Construction Battalion) veteran. Justin joined the Navy Seabees in the summer of 2006, only a month after he had graduated from Aurora High School, at 17 years of age. Justin had always wanted to join the military and his father recommended the Seabees. After doing some research, he decided that it would be the perfect line of service for him. The Seabees are essentially the construction company of the military. They go in and build runways, bases, and other things needed for the military to safely be in a different environment. In his time of service, Justin built runways in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Australia. And in the summer of 2011, exactly 5 years from the day he joined, Justin separated from the Navy. By Cam J.
David Feddern U.S. Air Force 1987-1993
David Feddern’s branch of service was the United States Air Force. He served from August of 1982-May 9th of 1986 in ROTC. ROTC stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps. He also served from February 16th, 1987-May 5th, 1986 on active duty. While on active duty he was promoted to Captain. He served in the Strategic Air Command and the 90th Strategic Missile Wing. He was located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He retired from active duty military service on May 5th, 1993. He is currently a pastor at Zion Lutheran Church near Hampton, NE. By Casandra M.
Dan Fiala U.S. Navy 1992-1996
Dan was 21 years of age when he enlisted in the Navy. When he got to camp in Chicago he was about 2 weeks early, so he and the early group mostly cleaned for the first part of the time in boot camp. During camp they had classes to take and he learned to be an electrician, which meant his job was fixing and putting together jets and planes. After boot camp Dan was stationed on the flight deck of the ship. It was stressful at the time, mostly because they had a limited amount of parts for the jets and planes. The most memorable part he had, was that a helicopter went down and a team of people were sent to get the pilots and passengers. Another thing that he liked was they had a lot of good food on the ship, especially the eggs. The ways they entertained themselves on the ship were by lifting weights and watching movies. by Shae F.
Gayle Frevert U.S. Navy Navy Nurse Corps 1976-2002
Meet Gayle Frevert, she served in the US Navy. She decided to join the Navy in October 1976 when she was 23 as a direct commission. Gayle knew she was going to join the military, she said it was the right thing to do. She joined the Navy in the nursing corps.
Gayle first started in Corpus Christi, Texas and she was there for 3 years until she went on to Long Beach, California where she also served for 3 years. Then she went to Okinawa, Japan for 18 months, one of her favorite places she went during her time of service. She then went back to school to get her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at the University of Washington (Seattle) in 1986 and then worked at San Diego Naval Hospital for 5 ½ years.
After that she deployed again on the USNS Mercy(a hospital ship) for 7 months during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. She would then go back to school at the University of San Diego for masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) in 1994. She worked at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia for 3 years, the Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Japan for 2 years and then finished her service at Bremerton Naval Hospital in Washington. Gayle retired from active duty August 2002 after serving for 25 years, 10 months. --by Kamryn M.
Larry Gimpel U.S. Army 1968-1970
Meet Larry Gimpel. He was born on December 26, 1947. He grew up in Aurora, Nebraska and attended Giltner Public School.
Larry and his twin brother both got drafted, he got drafted in the U.S. army. He was 20 when he first got drafted but soon turned 21. His first couple weeks in the service were rough. Everyone had to shave their head so they looked the same but he soon got used to it. The first couple of weeks were also filled with lots of exercise, running and pushups. He said you had to take a PT test. Pushups were also made to be a punishments. He was originally trained in infantry but when he got over to Fort Noose, Washington they didn’t need infantry so he was retrained to drive a five ton truck.
He served in South Vietnam in the 101st Airborne division. His opinions on the war were pretty neutral, he knew that he was fighting to stop communism. Mostly he was just called to do his duty and he did what he was told to do. He felt kind of prepared. He wrote home every couple of months. During basic training you could call once a month of every couple of weeks. By Natalie S.
Tim Graham U.S. Army Army National Guards
Tim Graham graduated from Aurora High School in 1994 and following his older brother and father’s foot steps he joined the Army and served from 1994-2000 and is now in the Army Reserves. During his service he has traveled to South Korea, Tokyo, Japan, Fort Hood, Texas and all around the U.S. In the Army he was a tank driver and a tank gunner; operating the big gun on top. In the Reserves he teaches non-medical people who are waiting for deployment. In civilian life Tim is in the medical field as a paramedic for Hamilton County. Right now Tim is a Staff Sergeant and is planning on getting promoted to a higher rank in February. By Sarah H.
Matt Hedge U.S. Air Force 2004-2008
Meet Matt Hedge, 31 years old. He enlisted in the Air Force because his lovely girlfriend, at the time, would not let him enlist in the Army and the Air Force was the only one that was open that day when he enlisted. He enlisted when he was 17, but he used the DEP, also known as Delayed Entry Program, to get into the Air Force when he turned 18. He served in the Air Force from November 2004 to March 2008. Since email was a thing while he was in the Air Force he wrote emails home often, and called home about once every week. If you were to ask him what he did in his free time he would gladly share with you his long funny stories on what he did in his free time. by Redding M.
Jimmy Hough U.S. Navy 1966-1980
Meet Mr. Jimmy Hough. He served our country in the U.S Navy. He enlisted in 1966 at the age of 20. He was interested in the navy because his father was in it and they were the only branch to notice Milford. His job in the navy was construction he built anything they needed from housing to runways. He served our country for 14 years and retired in 1980. by Mikaela S.
Rod Howland U.S. Navy 1968-1974
Rod enlisted into the Navy in November of 1968, during the Vietnam War. Rod went to bootcamp in San Diego, California. During the first couple days there he had his 21st birthday. While in bootcamp, Rod learned how to march, climb a rope and Jacob's ladder, he learned the ranks for the Navy and when to salute and acknowledge his superiors. Rod also learned about gas masks and chambers.
His first job in the Navy was a boiler repairman. After doing that on his first ship, U.S.S. Samuel Gompers, he then moved to being an engineman. Rod worked on everything from small general motor engines to engines bigger than a semi. As an engineman he was on the captain's gig, (a boat used on naval ships as the captain’s taxi).
During Rod’s service he was stationed in many places. I don’t know if this is the correct order but these are most of the places he was stationed; San Diego, Subic Bay, Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, San Francisco, Long Beach, Chicago, and Vietnam. Rod was on three ships over the course of his service; a repair ship, a spy ship, and an aircraft carrier.
Rod’s service was supposed to be four years but he got out two months early due to a family issue. When he got back to his hometown, Aurora, NE, he worked for his mother on her farm and later went to work on his brother-in-law's farm. Rod is now 70 years old and has retired from farming. By- Anna G.
Tom Newlun U.S. Air Force 1953-1966
Meet Tom Newlun. Tom was born on October 28, 1934 in Aurora, Nebraska where he was also raised. After he graduated from Aurora High School, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Navy, but he ended up serving in the Air Force December 15, 1953 - November 15, 1966. Tom started out his service by attending basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. After he finished training, he went to Cheyenne, Wyoming’s air base where he learned mechanics and air defence command. Right after the Korean War, During Peace time, he became part of the 3/10 Fighter Bomber Squadron in the sixth division traveled to South Korea and later to Kadena, Okinawa in the 18th Fighter Bomber Squadron. His service ended in 1966 At Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tom achieved a final ranking of Airman First class when he finished his service, and decided to head back home to Aurora, Nebraska to get a job and to be with his family once again. by Sydney F.
Gary Ross U.S. Army Security Agency 1962-1964
Gary Earl Ross was born in October 1939 and when he was 21 years old he joined the Army. He left Aurora and went to Omaha. After Omaha, where he got registered, he went to boot camp in Missouri. After his 8 weeks of learning how to use a weapon, how to keep yourself clean, how to act on a battlefield and other things he went with three other guys from the boot camp to the ASA (Army Security Agency) in Berlin, Germany. He served from 1962-1964. His job was to record conversations, teletype conversations and write them down. He was a printer so he learned how to run teletype machines, take morse codes and run and use tape recorders. Gary was put into a unit where he was supposed to listen to radar, put them on tape and analyze the the signal. Since this was during the Cold War most things he did were secret. --by Laurin S