Doug Preston Is Veteran Of The Month For June

By Doug KapkeDouglas L. Preston is Jefferson County’s Veteran of the Month for June, 2025. He was honored Tuesday morning, June 3, by Jefferson County Commissioners. He was also presented with a Quilt of Valor and a hand-made, patriotic wall-hanging by Rory Rosener. Doug Preston was born in Fairbury on December 16, 1950. He had two brothers and one sister. He attended grade school and high school in Fairbury. In high school he took general coursework, played football and worked part time at the Preston Feed Mill. After graduation in 1969, he traveled to Lincoln, to work for the Lincoln Water Department until he was drafted into the United States Army, May, 1970.Private Preston attended Basic Training for eight weeks in Fort Lewis, Washington. Upon graduation he requested to be trained as a medic and was sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas near San Antonio, Texas, for 10 weeks of Medical Corpsman Training. Fortunately for him and his entire class, they were not needed in Vietnam. After a short leave, Private Preston was sent to South Korea. Preston was assigned to the 43rd Mobile Surgical Hospital about two to three hours north of the South Korean capital of Seoul. His unit consisted of a small camp of 127 enlisted personnel and 28 officers near the Korean town of Uijeongbu. His primary duties included primary health care, giving shots and working the Emergency Room. In addition to caring for military personnel they provided health care to Korean civilians. Everyone they served had to come to the hospital for health care. Preston only recalls the loss of one military person during his tour of duty. The most serious emergency room care experienced was when a South Korean fisherman mistakenly used a fragmentary grenade instead of a concussion grenade for fishing. Leaning over the edge of the boat and peering into the water waiting for stunned fish to emerge was not good for that fisherman’s well-being when using fragmentary grenades.Recreational activities consisted of going eight miles away to Camp Red Cloud and playing intramural football, basketball, bowling and going to movies. Preston attended the Bob Hope Show and saw Johnny Bench, a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 to 1983. Toward the end of his duty in South Korea, a new medical team took over and Preston was reassigned as a Company Courier. Duties included driving Jeeps, ambulances and 2 ½ ton trucks to numerous locations in South Korea to drop off and pick up various military records regarding finance, incoming soldier records and others. Traffic in Seoul was a challenge to navigate considering there were always numerous civilians on foot, on bicycles, on motor cycles, driving oxen carts and every imaginable form of vehicular traffic, mostly with no semblance of organization. Specialist E-4 Preston left South Korea on December 12, 1971, after having earned the National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal and the Sharp Shooter Medal with the M-16 rifle. Because of the time change he arrived in the United States at Fort Lewis, Washington, the same day, December 12, 1971. After a brief physical, which consisted mostly of checking military records, Preston and two other friends caught a 10:00 p.m. flight to St. Louis, Missouri, where they parted ways. The next day he was picked up in Omaha by his mother and brother.Preston began working for Bud and Bill’s Cement Company out of Steele City in the summers and the Brick Yard for a while in the winters, worked one year as a Pepsi Distributor before working for Budweiser for 15 years. The last 24 years of his working career was working on Union Pacific Maintenance Way, mostly in Nebraska, Wyoming and Iowa, until his retirement in 2015.Preston has always enjoyed hunting and fishing and is a member of the Jansen American Legion.His first wife, Kathy, passed away in 2011. He currently lives in Fairbury with his wife, Bonnie, of 10 years and they enjoy their free time with children and 14 grandchildren.

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