FAIRBURY, Neb. - Every month, the Jefferson County Veterans Service Office honors and celebrates local military veterans, commemorating their distinguished careers and past service to their country. On Tuesday morning in Fairbury, the latest Veteran of the Month was crowned.  

This month’s honoree was James Ball. Born in in 1946 in Iowa, Jim Ball served in the U.S. Naval Reserves and the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1971 during the Vietnam War, where he applied his training in mechanics and electronics to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk in the Gulf of Tonkin.  

“I got to see Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brazil... places that I would never have seen as a farm kid from rural Iowa,” Ball reflected on Tuesday. 

Ball’s active service officially ended the same place it began, the Virginia Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, where he was honorably discharged in October 1971. From there he briefly returned home to Iowa before he made his first foray into the state of Nebraska, moving to Omaha to work for The Snow Company. He later lived in Fort Calhoun, and moved to Fairbury in 2023 to be closer to his son, Rick. 

“Two of my friends, one was a couple years olde than me, one was about two years younger, they were killed in Vietnam,” Ball said Tuesday.  “So the town that we were from, they didn't show any celebration for soldiers returning back then, but at least they were friendly to you. A lot of soldiers when they returned home, they were spit on, or even worse.” 

Tuesday morning’s celebration certainly represented a marked improvement from that type of homecoming, Ball said. As part of the monthly ceremony, Ball was presented with a plaque, a certificate, and a Quilt of Valor, which has become a local tradition. And looking back, now half a century after his active service ended, he acknowledged that this honor commemorated more than just his achievements. 

“This is for all the veterans, yeah,” Ball said. “There were a lot of us over there, and we were 18, 19, 20 years old...and not all of us made it back home.”