FAIRBURY - His nearly 30-year military career spanned three different branches, and took him literally from coast to coast in the United States.  

Fairbury native Alfred Brejcha was named January's Jefferson County Veteran of the Month, the first one of the new year, on Tuesday morning in Fairbury. 

Born in Fairbury in 1955, Alfred Brejcha graduated from Wilber-Clatonia in 1974 and immediately joined the Marine Corps. After a training period in North Carolina, Brejcha was deployed to both the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea before his discharge in 1977.  

Civilian life didn't last long, though - by 1984 he joined the US Army, a role which took him from basic training in Georgia to work as a mortarman in Texas to a role on the light brigade in Anchorage, Alaska.  

In 1989, Brejcha returned home to Southeast Nebraska to serve in the Nebraska Army National Guard in Crete, Fairbury and Nebraska City until his retirement in October 2001.  

He stayed active within the military community even when his active service had ended, working with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Lincoln for 17 years. 

Alfred's has been married to his wife Debra for 45 years. The two were high school sweethearts and have three daughters and two grandchildren.