TOPEKA (KSNT) – Serving as a Staff Sergeant for seven years, Air Force Veteran James Knedler worked security on highly classified information from all across the globe.

Back in the early 1960’s, Knedler and a friend of his were looking to change up their lives.

“At the time we were in college, and it just felt like it was time to do something else,” Knedler said. “I wasn’t taking the studies real seriously.”

After meeting with an Air Force recruiter, Knedler enlisted and officially began his military journey overseas.

“I was sent to Okinawa,” Knedler said, “a special security site in the hills called Onna point. We did security stuff.”

As the Vietnam war began ramping up, that security role would end up changing the Staff Sergeant’s trajectory.

“Got orders to go to ‘Nam,” he said, “and I was gonna go, but then they rescinded those orders because of my security clearance and sent me to the Pentagon.”

In the Department of Defense headquarters, Knedler continued working on similar security protocols.

“I was tracking activities of other countries,” Knedler said. “kind of interesting, top secret codeword and all that.”

Decades later, one pivotal moment that stands out to the Staff Sgt. followed the Six-Day War breaking out in the Middle East.

“We were so swamped when that broke out,” he said. “it was almost funny, we couldn’t keep up with the traffic that was coming in.”

After his time in the service ended, Knedler worked in finance and utilities around the country until the Kansas Department of Commerce convinced him to relocate to Topeka, where he’s called home since the late 1970’s.

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