T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — U.S. Army Veteran Kenny King, center, a resident of Iowa River Hospice, recently received a Quilt of Valor from Denise Straits of the Central Iowa Quilt Sew-Ciety. King is pictured with his brother Keith King, right, and his sister Connie Newman, left.

Kenny King may have only spent two years in the military after being drafted into the U.S. Army at the height of the Vietnam War, but he’s always recognized the importance of that period in his life since returning to central Iowa.

King, who spent the vast majority of his life in the Grinnell area, has been living at Iowa River Hospice since late December, and recently, he received a Quilt of Valor recognizing his service from Denise Straits of the Central Iowa Quilt Sew-ciety, who also happens to be an RN at Iowa River Hospice.

“It was quite an honor because it wasn’t expected,” he said.

After graduating from high school in 1966, King was drafted two years later and admitted he initially didn’t want to go but stuck it out, training at Fort Bliss before transferring to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and becoming a nuclear weapons specialist. In a twist of fate that still shocks him to this day, King’s orders were changed the night before he was set to ship out to Vietnam, and he ended up heading to Germany instead.

Most of his time there was spent patrolling the Iron Curtain between East and West Germany and keeping a lookout for suspicious activity, which his brother Keith said took a lot of vigilance to make sure nothing went “haywire.”

“When I was on duty, it was 24/7. You never slept, you were awake all the time,” Kenny said. “All you did was watch that radar stroke looking for an aircraft.”

After his two years were up, Kenny returned home to his home area, got a job at Maytag in Newton and retired there over two decades later, living at a home on Rock Creek Lake before eventually moving into town in Grinnell.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, he was assigned to assist with crowd control duties — he was recommended by the Izaak Walton League due to his military training — while then candidate and soon-to-be President George W. Bush visited Ames.

Keith King, who lives in the Portland, Ore., area, and King’s sister Connie Newman, who resides in Texas, were both back in town Friday and happy to see their brother’s service commemorated. Connie, who was in high school, recalled writing him letters during that time to ensure he would hear from someone, and even though they’ve spread out across the country now, they’re still proud of everything their brother has accomplished.

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Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.