Quilts of Valor

Six Quilts of Valor were presented to veterans at this year’s Jefferson County Fair in Fairbury. Here are their stories. Jerry Talbot was drafted in January of 1958, and did his basic training at Fort Hood, Texas. That happened to be the same time Elvis Presley was also doing his basic training also at Fort Hood, so he had the opportunity to see him several times around the area. After training he was sent to Hanou, Germany aboard the USS Darby. While in Germany, he was responsible for driving a staff car for a Colonel, and also for delivering mail across Germany, and for guarding the Berlin Wall. During his time there he received a Commendation Award for driving 8,000 plus miles accident free. Most of his time was spent driving from West Germany to East Germany, so he got to spend a lot of time taking in the German scenery. He returned to the United States on the USS Darby in the Spring of 1960 and went to Fort Sheridan in Illinois. After serving in the Army, he returned to Endicott Nebraska where he and his family have lived ever since. Terry Grammer (Rank-SP4) entered the Army on June23, 1959 and took his basic training at Fort Carson, Co. He then took advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. He was placed with the Engineers before being shipped to Munich, Germany to be with the 31st Transportation, 24th Infantry, 7th Army. Going to Germany on the USS Patch, a transport ship, took seven days to get there. He was lucky enough not to be sent to Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos after being alerted twice. They were loaded twice on cargo planes and flown to an airbase in Northern Germany. After two weeks they were loaded up and sent back to Munich, Grammer was given a 10,000-mile safe driving award, expert shooter with an M1 and carbine rifles and a Good Conduct Metal. The same ship brought him back to New York to be discharged. This time the trip took eight days to get back to the states. Norris Gold was drafted into the Army in January 1952. Basic training was at Camp Roberts, California for 16 weeks. After basic, his company was split in half. Half were sent to Korea and the other half went to Germany. Gold was sent to Munich, Germany, in July of 1952. He served there through December 1953.After six months in Germany, Norris carried the duties of Sargent in 60 Millimeter mortar section. I was in the 43rd Division, 172 regiment of Company C. While in Germany he was on the Company and Reg-imental track team. Gold competed in the long jump and the 400-meter race.He got to see a lot of the country while in the service. Going over through the English Channel and coming home through Switzerland, Naples, Italy and the Straights of Gibraltar.Gold was discharged in January of 1954 with the rank of Corporal. Wayne Weichel signed up to join the army reserve while he was in high school and was sworn in two weeks after he graduated in June of 1963. He went to basic in Fort Leonard, Missouri, in September. After basic training, he went to personnel school and after graduating was assigned to the 16th Corp in Omaha. After completing six months of training Wayne returned to the Fairbury unit and they didn’t need a personnel specialist, so he became a light weapons infantry instructor.Wayne’s first summer camp it was back to Leonard Wood for two weeks and was assigned to help run an assault course. After summer camp it was back to Fairbury and weekly meetings with classes on first aid, close order drills and a lot of marching on the Safeway parking lot.Second summer camp he was sent to Fort Jackson South Carolina where Wayne was assigned to learn and give a class on capture and search prisoners.The next year, 1966, he went to camp Ripley, Minnesota, where he was assigned 68 non-prior service Iowa National guard recruits for two weeks to give them basic training before going to basic.In 1967, his unit was changed over to an armored unit and Wayne was attending Milford trade school, so he extended a year since attending weekly and weekend meeting was money to get him through.Summer camp 1967 was at Fort Knox, Kentucky, which is an armored training fort, but was assigned to attend drill sergeant school. After summer camp, he was transferred to Lincoln unit and was told it was back to drill sergeant school. Wayne decided, since he was graduating from Milford in July, that having a two-week summer camp ahead that it might affect job prospects, so he opted out, although today he wishes he had gotten his smokey bear hat by staying in one more year. Ken Weichel joined the U.S. Army in June of 1969, attended basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, pri-mary flight school at For Walters, Texas and advanced flight school in Fort Rucker, Alabama. He re-ceived his wings and warrant officer rank in June of 1970. Ken became a helicopter pilot. In July of 1970 he arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to a company, 158 Aviation Battalion, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. The company was known as “Ghost Riders” and Ken’s call sign was “Husker” thanks to a fellow pilot from K-State. Duties were to provide direct support to both US and South Viet-namese Soldiers. They were involved in insertion and extraction of troops in many parts of Northern I Corp. (Near the DMZ). Ken also provided medivac services as needed. They were the lead Company in the reopening of the Khe Sanh as they prepared for Lam Son 719, which was a failed effort to stop the flow of soldiers and equipment from North Vietnam down the Ho Chi Min trail.Ken returned home to Nebraska in July of 1971 and spent three years flying for the Army National Guard at Lincoln. During his military career Ken received the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2nd grade, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, 15 Air medals, Army Commendation Medal, National Ser-vice Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Army Aviation Badge. Steven Zabokrtsky was inducted on October 22, 1969, and took basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, for eight weeks. From there he went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He trained on 105 mm howitzers (short canon) for eight weeks. In April of 1970, after two weeks leave, Zabokrtsky went to Augsburg Germany, and was assigned to the liaison section headquarters, battery 2nd battalion 33' artillery 1st infantry division forward. This liaison section trains with fire direction control (FDC).His battalion went to the gun ranges two times a year. Liaison section charted where the rounds from the 155 mm howitzers landed in relative to the target. He would be in the field 30 days at a time. He also went to the field with the infantry to test mortars.Zabokrtsky was promoted to E4 on February 15 1971. Metals awarded are national defense metal M14 sharpshooter, M16 marksman, and he was on the color guard division for a while. The last three months in Germany, his battalion was relocated to New Ulm Germany.Zabokrtsky was discharged on September 28, 1971. To him, the Lincoln airport never looked so good. The only person he saw at the airport was a police officer he went to school with, as the airport was al-most empty at 9:00 pm.

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