{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7C07C4B1-820E-4AD0-92BA-FBFDA74FF170", "Boozman Shares Memories of River Valley Army Veteran", "2024-06-10", "2024", "2024-06", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", "boozman", "https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) recognized the service of Keith Greene in \u2018Salute to Veterans,\u2019 a series highlighting the military service of Arkansans.\n\nKeith Greene was born in Jackson County, Missouri where he and his siblings grew up working in their dad\u2019s grocery business. He remembered working hard from an early age with the rest of his family.\n\nGreene enrolled in junior college after graduating high school in 1960, but quickly realized he didn\u2019t enjoy the class schedule or continuing to work for his dad.\n\n\u201cI thought, you know, it\u2019s time to make a change,\u201d he recalled before enlisting in the Army in September 1961.\n\nHe was sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for basic training. Although it was in the same state, Greene remembered it being very different from his life at home.\n\n\u201cIt was an adventure because you never knew what the next day was going to bring,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really opened my eyes.\u201d\n\nHe learned a lot from the experienced soldiers around him who served in WWII and the Korean War and was reminded in simple ways of what they had endured. One day he noticed the holes in the used field training jacket he had been given and asked if it was eaten by a moth. He learned they were bullet holes. \u201cThat stuck with me,\u201d he said.\n\nGreene also found that the skills he learned in his family\u2019s business could help him in the Army, especially his ability to drive a truck. He had a chauffeur\u2019s license and was frequently assigned to haul people all over the base. He remembered being thankful the job allowed him to get out of kitchen patrol duty.\n\nAfter basic training, he remained at Fort Leonard Wood for wheeled vehicle mechanic school.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s the Army\u2019s thinking, you know, they\u2019re going to let you fix something,\u201d he said.\n\nHis first assignment after school was with the First Aviation Company at Fort Benning, Georgia, today known as Fort Moore.\n\nThe base became a hub for planning America\u2019s response to the Cuban Missile Crisis and he put his truck driving skills to use again while stationed there. \u201cWe were just constantly picking up people coming in from all over the country. High-ranking brass and everybody that was involved with planning this invasion,\u201d he said.\n\nDuring his time in Georgia he struck up a friendship with a commander who flew a helicopter and encouraged him to apply for flight school. Greene was accepted, but wasn\u2019t successful in becoming an Army aviator. \u201cI got over that,\u201d he said given the high number of casualties of helicopter pilots in Vietnam.\n\nGreene\u2019s next duty station was Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. \u201cThat was a neat place,\u201d he recollected.\n\nOnce on base, his driving skills were noted when a commander looked at his records and Greene was assigned to serve as his driver.\n\nIn Hawaii he found himself closer to the war and able to follow news about what was happening in Vietnam. \u201cWe all kind of stayed in tune to things, the day room had TVs, we saw the news all the time.\u201d It was also where he learned of the death of President Kennedy.\n\nIn February of 1964 Greene said an alert came down to board up everything and he was airlifted to Okinawa, Japan. He then unloaded ships of refurbished equipment and drove up into the mountains where he stayed for several weeks.\n\nHe said the trip was dangerous despite the reporting he read in an issue of Army Times that detailed the successful mission.\n\n\u201cI mean we had all kinds of troubles with this stuff from the way they stored it on the ships,\u201d Green also recalled tanks and trucks sliding off the road because they went through a snowstorm in the mountains.\n\nAfter completing his military service, Greene started a career in poultry distribution. He used the skills he learned from his dad to excel as a poultry salesman and eventually became a successful business owner.\n\nAlthough he did not fly for the Army, his earlier interest in aviation led him to pursue a private pilot\u2019s license, which he used throughout his career. He owned many airplanes over the years and turned his passion into community service by introducing young people to aviation at the local Boys and Girls Club.\n\nGreene\u2019s lifelong commitment to service included serving as the Mayor of Alma, Arkansas for several years and working with many veteran-related organizations. He continues to engage his fellow veterans as an active member of the American Legion, Military Officers Association of America and through his involvement in the Arkansas Military Veterans\u2019 Hall of Fame.\n\nOne of his top priorities has been to recognize the service of his fellow veterans.\n\n\u201cThat has really been something that I have found really interesting and looking at their individual stories of what they did. People don\u2019t realize what they\u2019ve experienced, what they\u2019ve done. It\u2019s got ahold of me. I was glad I got on there and I\u2019m still on,\u201d Greene said about his work on the hall of fame.\n\nToday he is continuing his efforts in support of veterans by helping create a statewide Arkansas Veterans Coalition to be a voice in the Arkansas Legislature for men and women called to military service.\n\n\u201cI enjoyed the Army, I really did and I think part of it was the fact that I was able to move around quite a bit during the time I was in,\u201d he said about his service.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m grateful for Keith Greene\u2019s service to our country in uniform and his continued commitment to public service and recognizing the unique experiences of veterans. I\u2019m pleased to preserve his memories of a lifetime devoted to helping others,\u201d Boozman said.\n\nBoozman will submit Greene\u2019s entire interview to the Veterans History Project, an initiative of the Library of Congress\u2019s American Folklife Center to collect and retain the oral histories of our nation\u2019s veterans.\n\nDo you know a veteran interested in sharing their memories for the Salute to Veterans series? Nominate an Arkansas veteran to share their story by calling Boozman\u2019s Fort Smith office at 479-573-0189.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:24:47Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7C07C4B1-820E-4AD0-92BA-FBFDA74FF170"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 5.299883894622326, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}