Terry & Brianna Payn

Our Veteran of the Month is actually two Veterans! Mr. Terry Payn and his granddaughter Brianna Payn. We’ll start with Terry, he graduated from Cedar Rapids Washington High School and immediately got a job at Collins Radio. In 1967 he followed his dad’s footsteps and took a leave of absence from Collins and joined the US Navy. He became a diesel mechanic on board the USS Constant, an all wooden ship used as a mine sweeper. He served 2, 9 month, tours in Vietnam sweeping the waters for mines. In 1971 he left the Navy as an E-4 and returned to work at Collins and stayed there until he retired after 37 years! Now he and his wife Connie live just outside Center Point and enjoy watching their grandkids activities.

Now, speaking of grandkids let me tell you about Brianna. She signed up for the Army National Guard in 2018 and graduated Center Point Urbana High School in 2019. She graduated from Army basic training at Ft Jackson and went on to train in the Logistics career field. Now she trains with her unit out of Waterloo and says one of her favorite highlights has been all the rides on Helicopters during training. She’s currently an E-4 like her grandpa and plans to separate this fall after 6 years of service. Currently she attends Kirkwood and is majoring in Ag Science/Ag Business. After school she wants to get into feed and nutrition for animals and ultimately become a feed sales rep. As you can see military service runs deep in the Payn family, from WWII to Vietnam and then the Global War on Terror. Please help me thank them for all their years of dedicated service to our great nation!!!