Veterans honored with quilts

MARENGO — Iowa County Heartland Quilters of Williamsburg presented Quilts of Valor to four veterans this month at American Legion Post 78 in Marengo.

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Staff Sgt. Morris Richard Denison, of Marengo, was inducted into the U.S. Air Force in June of 1968 in Des Moines at the age of 18. He received basic training in San Antonio, Texas.

Denison was deployed to England, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Spain and Turkey working as a weapons mechanics and a bomb and ammunitions loader on conventional and nuclear fighters.

Following his discharge in March of 1974, Denison was employed at Amana Refrigeration for 40 years as a truck driver. He and his wife have three children and five grandchildren.

E-4 Robert E. Alexander Jr., of Marengo, was born in 1964 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was inducted into the U.S. Navy in August of 1983 in St. Louis and received his basic training in Great Lakes, Illinois.

Alexander was deployed in 1982 on Aircraft Carrier USS Midway CV-41 to Lebanon, Grenada and Yokosuka, Japan, working as an electrician and mechanical and equipment repairman.

When he left the service, Alexander worked as a carpenter. He and his wife have four children and two grandchildren.

SSG Ronald Murlen Vogt, of Homestead, is an Iowa Valley graduate from the class of 1960. He was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1964 in Des Moines and received his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Vogt served five years with the 301st Army Field Hospital in Cedar Rapids and, while serving with the Army Reserves, hauled supplies to camp sites.

Vogt was discharged in 1969 and worked for Swartzendruber Lumber and for Amana Builders before starting his own business, Vogt Construction and Repair. He farms the Vogt Centruary Farm where he grew up.

Vogt and his wife have two children.

E-4 Garth L. Grafft, of Marengo, was born in 1936 and raised on a farm in Jones County. He was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1958 at Fort Carlson in Colorado and received his basic training there, serving as a meat cutter.

Grafft was transferred to the Fifth Army Headquarters in Chicago where he processed office procedures and information. He was discharged in 1960 and began working as a grocer.

Grafft and his late wife raised three sons in Marengo. They have nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.