West Chicago native retires from Army
The son of a longtime West Chicago couple retired this year from the Army after 36 years of service to his country.
Joseph K. Baker III is currently an assistant principal at Fort Stockton High School in Fort Stockton, Texas.
The son of Joseph K. Baker Jr. and the late Heidi Baker, Joe Baker was born and raised in West Chicago, where he attended St. Mary's Grade School and Campion Prep School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
He received an associate degree from College of DuPage, a bachelor's from University of Iowa and a master's from Sullivan-Ross University in Texas.
He enlisted in 1980 and took basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He spent the next four years studying Russian and Intel in Texas and Massachusetts, including two years of helicopter training at Ft. Hood Texas.
In 1986, he and his wife, Elizabeth Laidly, were sent to Berlin to monitor Russian transmissions and intelligence during the Cold War. When the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall came down, they returned to Goodfellow Air Base in Texas.
Baker began his teaching career in 1995 when he left active duty and joined the Inactive Ready Reserves.
He was recalled in 2007 and sent to Iraq, where he saw combat in Ramadi and Southern Baghdad. On Christmas Day of that year he got to see one of his two sons, Liam, who also was fighting in Iraq.
He returned home in August 2008 and again was released from active duty. His final retirement from the Army became effective earlier this year.