Ed Negus

PRAIRIE CITY – Ed Negus of Prairie City served as an aviation stuctural mechanic, working on airframes and hydraulics with the U.S. Navy.

He spent a year and a half in the Philippines and served on the USS Enterprise. He was in Vietnam on the last day of the Vietnam War, flying air cover for two to three days straight during those final days.

The lifelong Prairie City resident has worked mostly as a truck mechanic for most of the years since then, the past 12 years spent with the road department in John Day.

Negus has been a member of the American Legion for 36 years.

“I joined back in boot camp,” he said.

On his time in the military and the Vietnam War, Negus said, “It made me grow up in a hurry.”

He added that he’s “proud of it and wouldn’t want to do it any differently.”