Medina Is Jefferson County’s First Vet Of The Month For 2022

Mike Medina was honored as Jefferson County’s first Veteran of the Month of the new year.In addition, Medina was presented with a Quilt of Valor.Mike Medina attended St. Michael’s Grade School and graduated from Fairbury High School in 1965. He attended Fairbury Junior College from 1965-1967 and graduated with a General Education Degree. Medina volunteered for Naval military duty on June 17, 1968 and attended basic training for eight weeks at San Diego, California.Medina’s initial goal was to become a Seabee. However, due to his college training, the Navy assigned him to Jacksonville, Florida, to attend 22 weeks of Aviation Electronics Mate School.Medina’s first duty station was the Naval Air Station (NAS) at Atsugi, Japan where he worked a 12 month tour of duty on ground support equipment that was extended to 18 months. After another six weeks of schooling at Alameda, California, Medina was assigned to a technical squadron dealing with Electrical Control Measures (ECM). Their mission was to “Royally Screw Up Enemy Radar Capability.” This was accomplished with multiple two planes units: One plane had an electronics crew that did the radar jamming and the other plane was a refueling plane that was necessary due to the length of missions.As an Electrical Specialist, Medina was part of a separate crew that traveled extensively to insure the radar jamming planes were always “mission ready.” This travel included visits to ocean Naval Carriers like the CVA 42 Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Florida; Puerto Rico; Spain; Sicily, Italy; Athens, Greece; the Island of Crete; Rota, Spain; Gibraltar, Spain; and CVA 63 Kitty Hawk on a WestPac Cruise.E-4 Medina was released from active duty June 1, 1972, and returned to Fairbury where he spent two years working an “on-the-Job” training program at the Fairbury Dodge Chrysler Dealership.He then worked for the Fairbury Steam Power Plant for 10 years, was upgraded to engineer for 27 years and transferred to maintenance at the plant for an additional seven years before retiring in 2009. Medina now works part time for the City of Fairbury in the summer mowing at Crystal Springs.Medina is a life member of the Fairbury American Legion since 1974 and the Fairbury VFW since 1972. He has served in every position of VFW Post 3113 in Fairbury. He has served several years as the now District 6 VFW Senior Vice-Commander and Commander. Medina was elected State VFW Surgeon in 2011 and has served as State Judge Adjutant, Junior and Senior Vice-Commander and State Commander from 2015-2016. He was the VFW State Hospital Chairman for 2018-2019.Medina is also a member of Disabled American Veterans and the Military Order of the Cooties. He says that the Cooties is the fun part of the VFW and he is their Sky Pilot (Chaplin). Currently, Medina lives in Fairbury with his wife, Joyce, of 50 years.The Jefferson County Veteran’s Service Office has joined with the United States Department of Defense as a Commemorative Partner in December 2021. Jefferson County will be presenting a Vietnam War pin to each Vietnam Veteran of the month starting this year.

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