Decades after his military service, Brad Oeder continues serving his community

As a young man growing up in Bureau Junction, Brad Oeder always knew service would be in his future.

“I knew from day one,” Oeder said.

His life journey brought him into military service as far away from home as Japan. Now, at 75 years old, Oeder continues to do his part to make his community a better place.

Military service always was in Oeder’s blood. His father served in the Army in World War II, and his grandfather served in World War I and World War II. He also didn’t know it at the time of service, but his wife Connie was able to track his lineage back to the days of Napoleon.

“She’s done a lot of genealogy work,” Oeder said. “I’ve had a history of military service in my family as far back as Napoleon. It doesn’t mean anything, but it’s kind of neat to see that.”

Oeder’s biggest influence, however, was his father, who was wounded in Tunisia, Africa. After his recovery, his father went on to become a military police officer and went to serve in Germany during WWII.

Oeder signed up for the delayed enlistment program in the Air Force in 1967 after leaving Illinois Valley Community College. Oeder served from 1968 to 1972 in Air Force communications and earned a rank of senior airman.

He attended tech school in Biloxi, Mississippi, before he was stationed in Tokyo for three years at the Fuchu Air Station. In Japan, Oeder was joined by his wife, who gave birth to their son while stationed there.

“Japan’s a beautiful country,” Oeder said. “People are polite. The young kids over there were taught English, so if you needed to talk to somebody, a student could translate for you.”

Oeder said his job in Japan was stressful. He was stationed at a headquarters that oversaw communications throughout the world during the Vietnam War. Bases under the responsibility of the headquarters include Air Force, Naval and Marine bases in Japan, Hawaii and more, he said.

During his service, Oeder fell ill with a collapsed lung and ended up spending four days at a 1,200-bed hospital in Tachikawa, where the wounded from Vietnam were being treated.

“Seeing all of these young, wounded and torn-up young men from Vietnam was pretty tough,” Oeder said. “I wasn’t involved in Vietnam and I was never sent there, but seeing these guys all shot to hell was tough.”

Oeder said the worst injuries seemed to be the burns. One night, he was asked to help bring some wounded people into the hospital from a battle.

“That’s something that I’ll never forget,” Oeder said.

Oeder returned home in 1972 and left the Air Force before trying to enlist in the Air Force Guard in Peoria. He said he was told that his communications training was not needed at that time.

He then joined the Army Guard out of Kewanee. He said he didn’t fit well learning the Army ways after training in the Air Force and left the Army Guard after about a year.

Oeder moved on to dedicate more than 25 years of his life to stock car racing. In his civilian life, many years passed before Oeder decided to get involved in any local veterans organizations. He acknowledges that it was a pure accident when he eventually did.

Oeder entered a gun raffle held by the AmVets group in DePue. He ended up winning both guns in the raffle and was asked to come by to pick them up.

Oeder ended up going to the group’s meeting to pick up his prizes and sat down and spoke with the guys in the group. During his discussions, a sign-up sheet was placed in front of Oeder and he said he thought, “How could I not?”

Oeder was a member for about three years in DePue before he transferred his membership to Princeton and eventually signed up to join the American Legion as well.

Oeder has been involved in countless service projects and community outreach events since then.

These have included building decks for local veterans, participating in Veterans Day and Memorial Day services, raising funds to help those in need, helping raise awareness for the groups that he’s a part of through speeches and networking events, and much more.

“It all just kind of fell into place,” Oeder said. “These are things that we should be and could be a part of. A lot of people are more patriotic now than we’ve ever seen.”

For Oeder, this patriotism has found its way into people’s relationship with the local veterans organizations, which has allowed them to accomplish more together than they ever could on their own.

Oeder’s work with and support for the American Legion, AmVets, Auxiliary, Flags of Freedom, Quilts of Valor, the Daughters of the American Revolution and more have come together at different times to honor and pay respects to veterans.

For Oeder, much of his volunteer and service work came together when he found out that he received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Princeton Chapter of the DAR in February.

After receiving the local award, Oeder found out that he was nominated for the Illinois State Award, which he received, and the Midwest Region Award – covering Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois – which he also received.

“I don’t do this for recognition. In fact, I try to avoid it sometimes,” Oeder said. “So many times they put me in the paper, and I try to hide in pictures or whatever. I never want to be recognized that way. For me, it’s, ‘Let me help you, let me do what I can.’ I just feel good doing it.”

Oeder has never been shy to lend a helping hand to those in need, even going outside of his work with local organizations. This work has included helping repair vehicles, speaking to local schools and being an example of continuing to help those in need.

This work also led Oeder and other veterans to try to get younger veterans involved in the local organizations as their membership continues to age.

Oeder said that in 10 years it’ll be tough to maintain the organizations without the involvement of younger veterans.

Despite continuing to reach out to younger veterans, Oeder said that he continues to enjoy the time he spends helping those in need and raising awareness. For him, even though his military service ended almost 50 years ago, he continues to serve his community.

“I loved serving my country, I really did,” Oeder said. “I love being in the American Legion, and I love being a member of AmVets. I love the camaraderie of the guys. Every day it is phenomenal.”