From solider to park host, Don Patterson enjoys life after service

When it’s winter in Iowa, 75-year-old Don Patterson travels to Arizona to “boondock.” From September to April he and his wife of three years, Kathy, will load up their RV and head for the desert to work as hosts for the Bureau of Land Management.

“We met in the desert,” he said with a grin all his own. “She came riding across the desert on a camel. I flagged her down as she came over that mountain.”

They actually met on the Internet, but the retired Army veteran likes a good joke. Patterson enlisted in the Army in 1956, completing tours in Vietnam and Korea. He was a career soldier, spending 20 years in the military. A transport operator, the nearly 70-year Newton resident was in charge of transporting supplies, personnel, cargo, “you name it,” he said. When he wasn’t unloading ships in Vietnam or operating a train in Korea, he was in the office keeping track of the inventory that was distributed. As support personnel, Patterson’s job was vital.

“If it wasn’t for us they wouldn’t be over there. They wouldn’t be eating,” he laughed. “They wouldn’t be supplied with any supplies.”

In South Korea, Patterson was a train operator, driving rails on the only rail route from Seoul to Pusan. He transported both American and South Korea personnel during his tour of duty. When asked if anything shocked, intrigued or provided hope to him between the Vietnam War and his time stationed in Korea, Patterson laughed with his grin and said, “none of the above.”

“Anything and everything, anything and everything (brought on those feelings),” he said. “It was a completely different country.”

Patterson also worked in transportation during his 10 years stationed in Germany in the final leg of his military career, also meeting his previous wife of 28-years. He said each Army regiment only had one transportation specialist, so “it’s where they need me most and worst,” Patterson said. Following his service in the Army, Patterson worked as a dispatcher for 20 years with Iowa Southern Utilities.

At his home on Newton’s northeast side, Patterson keeps a flag. It’s 3-by-5 feet silk material reads “U.S. Army, Retired and Still Serving.” He said this tells it all about his service, but to Patterson, his service meant “a job.”

“You hear so many people right now, when I’ll be out and around wearing my hat every once in a while if I don’t have to wear a ranger hat, they say ‘I was in the military.’ And I’ll say, ‘Well, how long was you in for?’ And they’ll say ‘Two years, three years, but I wish I had stayed in now.’ Twenty years later, you hear that all the time from these people,” Patterson said.

But with regard to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Vietnam veteran believes military personnel should stay out of theater. He is concerned with the recent escalation in violence which appears to be coming from Afghan support personnel.

“He’s mentioned different times that when they came home, they just came home,” Kathy Patterson said. “There wasn’t a lot of hoopla or celebration. It’s nice that recognizing them now. It’s a part of them getting back into society.”

“You see, they didn’t care about us,” Don added. “We just got back.”

But military service is part of both Don and Kathy Patterson’s families. Don’s 86-year-old brother, Kennith of Grinnell, served in both World War II and in the Korean War. Kathy’s two sons are in the military, and Don’s grandson will be graduating Oct. 5 from Officer Candidate School, working as a reservist while in communications for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Now approaching September, the Pattersons are loading their RV to head to Quartzsite, Ariz. Equipped with four solar panels, they are ready for their winter duty of issuing entrance tickets to visitors on behalf of the BLM park rangers. Patterson said Quartzsite will go from 800 people in the summer to nearly 2 million during the winter months. This year, the veteran will add a new addition to his and Kathy’s retirement destination: A hot tub will travel with them to the “RV capitol of the world.”

“You come down over the hill and there’s just RV’s as far as you can see,” he said.

Mike Mendenhall can be contacted at (641) 792-3121 ext. 422 or via email at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com.