“I was proud I was a soldier and of what I did. I hope it meant something,” said veteran Jack Farmer of his time in the service. “It’s an honor to serve your country.”

Steelville native Farmer served in the U.S. Army for 21 years, including two tours of duty in Korea and another in Vietnam, but is modest about the years he devoted to fighting for the freedoms so many take for granted.
“It was a fantastic education,” he said. “If our young kids could see how other kids in the world have to live, they’d change their attitudes. A lot of people don’t appreciate what we have in our country.”
Farmer graduated from Steelville High School in 1949 and joined the Army in October of that year. After basic training, he left the United States for Japan, where he stayed for a few months before being sent into Korea in August. He landed in Inchon and within five days, he was wounded and sent back to Japan to the hospital. He was just 18 years old. 
After his recovery, he went back to Korea. “I was just a PFC, a rifleman at the Chosin Reservoir, way up north where we got hurt bad,” he said. “When we got out of that and came back and reorganized, I was company clerk and jack-of-all-trades. Then I came home.” He spent one year in Korea that first time, but said he couldn’t describe what it was like to go in as a young man. He explained that he didn’t dwell on it and as a result has forgotten some. “I don’t like to think about it,” he said.
After being stateside for about a year, during which time he married his wife Sara, another Steelville native, he was sent to Nuremberg, Germany in 1952. He was a platoon sergeant and said they trained to be ready in case there was another war. He was with the 371st Armored Infantry Battalion.
He spent three years in Germany, an accompanied tour, meaning his wife was with him and that was where his two daughters were born. Just before his return to the states, Germany regained its sovereignty. In 1955, he came home and was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood. Both of his sons were born at Fort Wood. From 1956 to 1961 he was stationed there, then sent to Fort Riley, Kan. from ’61 to ‘64. At both bases, he trained troops. “Training, instructing, preparing for war, in case you need to go,” he explained.
It was during this time that he was sent for temporary duty to Germany. The Berlin Wall was being built and he described it as a “very political” time, with U.S. forces there in large part for a show of presence. He was part of the patrolling of the Wall, and said of Berlin, “It was like night in East Berlin and day in West Berlin. In the west, people were happy, in the east, they had long faces. It was like going out of a living room full of light into the dark.”
In June of 1964, Farmer was again deployed to Korea for another year’s duty, where he was assigned to the 1st Cavalry. At that time, the action was over and he was there on occupation duty. He continued training troops during that time. After a year’s duty in Korea, he once again returned to Fort Wood where he prepared soldiers in basic training.
In 1968, he received orders for deployment to Vietnam. In this war, he was a First Sergeant. Although it was another experience he didn’t want to say much about, he did report, “I tried to help my boys survive.”
When asked about the difference between Korea and Vietnam, he first said simply “Cold and hot.” He said it was bitterly cold in the mountains of Korea, but hot in the jungles of Vietnam. And although he stated, “War is all the same” in some ways, he talked about the more advanced machinery utilized in Vietnam.
Personally, there was a dramatic difference—in Korea, as a young man and PFC, “I did what I was told. You had somebody to think for you.” However, in Vietnam, he was First Sergeant and in charge of others. Obviously, he felt Vietnam was far more difficult because of the added responsibility of the lives of so many other men.
After a year in Vietnam, he returned to the United States and spent a short time at Fort Lee, Va. In September of 1970, he retired from the Army and returned home to Steelville, where he’s been ever since.
But that’s not where the Farmer family ended service to their country. Jack’s son Mark, who graduated from Steelville High School in 1974, went to college, where he joined ROTC. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in December of 1978, went to Ranger and paratrooper school, spent time at Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Irwin, Calif.; Fort Monroe, Va.; and served three tours in Europe. While stationed in California, he provided desert training for soldiers heading to Desert Storm.
Mark retired from the Army in 1998 as a Major.
And now, Jack’s grandson Jonathon is also serving his country in the Army. Commissioned in May of 2006, he is currently stationed at Fort Wood since he was called for active duty in May of this year. He is a First Lieutenant and executive officer for reservists who report for military police training.