On Veterans Day, our nation pays tribute to those American soldiers living and dead who have fought in defense of our country and the virtues we hold dear. And one of the Lakes Region’s most influential veterans is World War II veteran Harry Lang, founder of American Legion Post 148.
Pushing 90 years on this earth and recuperating from a broken hip, Lang doesn’t get around much anymore. He comes from a generation that is fast fading into old age, a generation defined by the trials of the Great Depression and the brutal conflict of World War II. Lang has carried two virtues through times of peace and times of war: honesty and friendship, virtues he believes are synonymous with his generation.
Born in 1916 – two years before the Armistice that brought World War I to an end – Lang grew up on a farm in Attica, New York. Since there was no such thing as a driver’s license back then, Lang learned to drive when he was only eight. Only a few years later, he joined his father and mother digging ditches for 4 cents a hour after the Depression hit.
“After the banks closed, nobody had any money,” he said.
But despite dire times, the townspeople came together to help one another out. They cobbled together corn, potatoes and other produce and brought it to the town hall so everyone could have their share and survive the winter. Lang remembers his father killing farm cows and giving meat to neighbors.
“In those days, everybody was a friend,” Lang said.
He also remembers the dances they held during the Depression and how he would pump the player piano while friends and family danced to the music.
After his father died, he had several jobs and eventually met and married his wife Beverley while working for Sears Roebuck in New York. In 1940, he joined the Coast Guard and two years later, the Marine Corps. They trained him hard down south, he said, before he went off to war in battle-torn South Africa.
“The sergeant put you through the mills,” he said. “They learnt you to live.”
Though Lang doesn’t like to talk about his war days, he fondly recalls the bond among his fellow soldiers; many of whom died in combat, others who became life-long friends.
Nobody liked to kill anybody, he said of the war. But that was part of the deadly “game.”
“War is just like a game,” Lang said. “You either win or lose. And when you’re in war, you don’t think about anything but winning.”
Lang got sick with malaria and had to be shipped home where he then taught gunnery on Paris Island.
And when the war finally ended in 1945, people rejoiced in the streets.
“People jumped in joy and kissed,” Lang said. “And some of us even cried.”
Life went on. Lang and his wife bought a bed and breakfast called Cedar Home near Camden which they ran for 20 years. When they sold the inn, he and his wife resettled in Windham.
In Windham, Lang made friends with local veterans like Morris Mayberry and Don Rogers. They began to meet once a month; sometimes at Lang’s house on Roosevelt Trail and sometimes at the Town Hall.
“I liked the good friendship,” Lang said. “We’d talk about things we were doing, things we enjoyed, but seldom talked about the war.”
Together they decided to form American Legion Post 148 and built the Windham Veterans Center behind the Windham Mall. Lang then became the Legion’s first commander, a position he held for many years.
It is at the Veteran’s Center that the American Legion and Windham Veterans of Foreign Wars now meet regularly and where they celebrate Veterans Day every year at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
This Veteran’s Day, the soldiers in Iraq are at the forefront of Lang’s mind. He draws many parallels between their situation and his time in World War II. Like the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the bombing of Pearl Harbor riled many young men to join the service and fight overseas in World War II.
“They’re going through everyday fighting as I did,” Lang said. “When they wake up in the morning, I’m sure they have much the same thoughts.”
He personally salutes and thanks every soldier that is now fighting overseas. He believes the soldiers in Iraq have “done their time” and that the government should bring them home soon. And when they do come home, Lang hopes they receive a homecoming like his generation did.
World War II veteran Harry Lang sits wearing his American Legion hat. Lang is a retired Marine and former commander and founder of the Windham Veteran’s Center and American Legion Post 148.Send questions/comments to the editors.
