Rodney Schrock recognized as October 2025 Jefferson County Veteran of the Month

He grew up along the Kansas-Nebraska border and then served for two years in the Army in Germany a decade after the end of World War II.

October's Jefferson County Veteran of the Month is Rodney Schrock.

Schrock split his youth between Southeast Nebraska and Northern Kansas. He graduated from Fairbury High School in 1952 and was drafted into the Army in September 1956.

After Basic Training in Arkansas, Schrock was shuttled off to Germany where he served on a team of radio operators who kept up communications with units all across that part of Europe.

He said a personal highlight from his time abroad was getting to see the famous Soviet Sputnik space shuttle at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels - and this week, Schrock somberly remembered his fellow soldiers that weren't able to make it back home.

"I just...wish that a lot of the men that aren't here could receive this fine reception," Schrock said tearfully at Tuesday's event. "I'm just sorry for them, that they aren't able to be here. I really don't deserve this as much as they do...but thank you, thank you anyway."

Finding pathways to promotions frozen and then suffering a back injury from moving heavy generators, Schrock finally left Germany and returned home to Northern Kansas in 1958.

He then spent the next 40 years working with Fairbury's Rock Island Railroad's "Western Division," before he retired in 1994 to spend more time with his family, which now stretches another three generations deep.