News : April 2024 Veteran of the Month

The Benton County Veterans Affairs office is pleased to announce that the Veteran of the Month of April is Urbana's very own Dennis Henry. Dennis served in our Air Force from 1966 until 1970. He joined the Air Force to, "see the world". Little did he know he would be seeing the states of Texas, Illinois, and North Dakota. He had plenty of opportunities to go elsewhere with his outstanding abilities to perform his job as a B52 mechanic, but chose to stay in North Dakota for his sweetheart, now wife Shirley. Dennis recalled taking a specialty knowledge test that had around 148 questions and only missing one. This was such a honor that his Wing Commander and Division Commander both patted him on the back and shook his hand for his accomplishment. Dennis shared a lot of memories with me during our time together. The first memory that came to his mind and possibly his favorite memory was having his arm around a nuclear bomb. He was called into work to perform some maintenance after a B52 had been out and was unable to continue due to oil leaking on the nuclear bomb. This was a major concern because the oil that had leaked on the bomb could have thrown off the trajectory, making the mission a failure. So, Dennis was called in to remedy the problem. I'd like to add that these large bombers were under such tight security that Military Police had to be able to always see the maintenance crew and held weapons pointed at them while they worked. With such intense pressure from the MP's and working around a live nuclear weapon, it's no wonder Dennis told his mother a little white lie about being safe here at home, just to make her feel better. Dennis had also mentioned that you could tell if a bomb was live or a dud by the amount of vibration it put off. If it was vibrating, and we are talking about a little vibration but one that you could hear and feel, then it was good to go. Dennis could remember every serial number of every B52 he had worked on and had many memories to share. If you see Dennis around Benton County, make sure to thank him for his service and see if he will share any of those memories with you. Thank you, Dennis, for your service!