Dan and Barb Arner recognized as March 2026 Jefferson County Veterans of the Month

For the last few years, the Jefferson County board of commissioners have recognized a local veteran of the month.

This month, a twist on the tradition: for the first time, the winners of the recognition are a husband and wife duo.

March's Jefferson County Veterans of the Month are Dan and Barb Arner.

Dan Arner was born to a rural farming family in Fairbury in 1953. Barb Hergott grew up in nearby Gilead, one of a family of 16 kids - 13 of which went on to join the military. Their father served in the Navy in World War II, but each of the 13 kids ended up in the Army - Barb said at one point her family tallied up how many years of service they all recorded...and it was a lot.

"All the veterans here, they probably think the way I do, that if I had to do it all over again I would do it all over again," Dan said Tuesday.

"I would too," Barb echoed immediately.

The pair met through a shared farm work experience setup when they were kids, and married in 1973 when Barb returned from a three-year stint as an Army medic.

Dan enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 18, and spent exactly 40 years in the service. Deployments took him to Bosnia and to to Iraq during the end of the reign of Saddam Hussein.

Back home in Nebraska, Dan worked for Westin Packaged Meats in Fairbury for 48 years - some of those years spent with his wife as a co-worker.

The pair have three children and ten grandchildren and are members of Fairbury's VFW.