Horan was wounded in Vietnam combat
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ROCKWELL CITY -- Bill Horan's Dad moved to Iowa after three failed wheat crops in Nebraska. He found the soil better, and it rained. He went to work as a hired man for eight years. Then he came to Calhoun County and bought a "wet, soggy farm" as many World War II veterans did at the time. Bill Horan was then 2 years old.
He grew up in Knierim, then a town of 30 people. When the town had a Fourth of July parade, the people would walk around a float. When Horan was very young, Iowa closed all the country schools. He wound up in a church basement in Manson, then used as classrooms until Manson could build a school. He went to Manson's middle school that was destroyed in a deadly twister that hit Manson and Algona on June 28, 1979.
After two years at Iowa Central Community College, he still didn't know what to do with his life so he went to Des Moines and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He hoped it would broaden his perspective. The Vietnam War was at full throttle.
He got his wish. Nothing broadens a person's perspective like a war on the other side of the world.
While in Des Moines at the recruiting center, he noticed a couple of Marines in the hallway. He asked an Army sergeant where the Marine recruiter was and the sergeant got the phone and said, "Hey George. We got one of yours down here."
Horan wanted to be with the best, a recurring theme with Marine Corps veterans.
He carried an M60 machine gun. He was with the 1st Marine Division, 7th Regiment.
He and his fellow Marines engaged the enemy 12 to 15 times during his tour of duty in Vietnam. All the fighting was done during the nighttime. The men were on patrol from one to three months, resupplied by helicopter every three days.
In Heip Duc Valley, the men settled in for the night. It was a "free fire zone" with no civilians in the area. Around midnight, Horan's platoon of 32 men started taking motor rounds. They found out later they were facing a force of around 1,000. It was one of the largest battles of the war.
As Horan jumped into his fighting hole (foxhole), he was hit by shrapnel in the back of the head. The wound wasn't life threatening.
Within minutes, Navy gunships opened up on the Viet Cong in support of the Marines on the ground. The ships fired all night long.
Half of the 32 men in the platoon were killed or wounded. Horan was in the hospital for a week.
After his discharge, one of his best friends in the Corps was going to South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. Unlike some others, Horan adjusted to civilian life quickly. He went to South Dakota State as well to work to obtain a degree in ag business.
Returning to the Rockwell City area, he met a man with 34 farms of all sizes. The man said he had a sick tenant who couldn't finish the fall harvest. Horan intended to work for a large ag company, but he had time on his hands and decided to finish the harvest.
He was a six-row farmer with a 40-20 John Deere. Other land owners came and asked if he would work their land. He did so, starting a long career in farming.