US Army, 1966-1969
I joined the Army in 1966, serving in Vietnam and retired in 1992 from the Army Reserves. My first training took place at Fort Leonard Wood, MO and Fort Belvoir, VA, as an Army Engineer. I returned to Fort Leonard Wood for a year in 1967. I served in the 86″ Engineer Battalion in Vietnam, leaving active duty in 1969 and the Army Reserves in 1992.
I was born April 9, 1942 at the downtown St. Francis Hospital in Marceline. Shortly after my birth, my parents George and Virlea Pollard moved back to San Diego, CA where they worked at Convair Aircraft Assembly Plan. Soon we were back in Missouri again. My brother Donald was born in 1943 in Chariton County, followed by my sisters Connie (1947) and Brenda (1952), born at St. Francis Hospital in Marceline after Dad returned from his Army tour in Germany in 1946.
We lived on farms near Indian Grove. For a couple of elementary school years I went to country schools, graduating from Keytesville High School in 1960. From there I spent a year at Central Methodist College in Fayette.
Bonnie Burch and I were married at the First Baptist Church in Marceline on August 30, 1964. I graduated from the University of Missouri in 1965.
My civilian career was as a biologist with the USDA Soil Conservation Service, serving in several locations but most notably for many years in St. Paul, MN and retiring from Lincoln, NE USDA.
Bonnie and I have two children, Todd and Karie Pollard Kjos. We also have six grandchildren and one great grandchild.
We moved from Lincoln to what once was the farm of my grandparents Roy and Edna Pollard, one mile north of Indian Grove. We stay involved in our local communities, Zion United Methodist Church, and our families and friends.