Honoring one of the “Greatest Generation”
Honoring one of the “Greatest Generation”
Paratrooper and Combat Engineer Henry Langrehr
307th Engineer Battalion 82nd Airborne Division
The Iowa National Guard and the Army Engineer Association assisted in the special presentation of the Caterpillar Silver de Fleury Medal to 99-year-old World War II Veteran Henry Langrehr.
The de Fleury Medal, named after LTC François-Louis Teissèdre de Fleury, who was presented the original medal in 1779, honors and recognizes those individuals who have provided significant contributions to Army Engineering. The medal also emphasizes the history, customs, and traditions of the Corps of Engineers community. There are four orders of the medal — Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Steel with the first de Fleury medal presented in 1989.
In addition to the de Fleury Awards program Caterpillar, Inc., supports the Engineer Regiment in honoring individuals who have rendered significant support and service to Army Engineering between the years 1941 and 1988 with the Caterpillar Silver de Fleury.
Attendees included the 1st Army DCG-Support and 1st Army Chief of Staff, USACE Rock Island District Commander, one congresswoman, two state senators and three state representatives.
99-year-old
World War II Veteran Henry Langrehr joined the US Army on 17 May 1943 and
completed his training as a Combat Engineer / Demolition Specialist at Fort
Leonard Wood, MO. He then completed parachute training and was assigned to
Company B, 307th Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division.
Henry was
among a stick of 18 paratroopers flying in broken formation of hundreds of
cargo planes into a deadly hail of German anti-aircraft fire. On his aircraft,
he was one of six paratroopers who survived the flight and the jump into Ste
Mere Eglise, several miles from their intended drop zone. He crashed through
the roof of a greenhouse, gathered his wits and equipment, and regained contact
with other paratroopers to begin their attack on anything German. A trim and compact man, barely 130
pounds on D-Day, Henry says that the engineering equipment and explosives he
parachuted into Normandy with on 6 June essentially doubled his body weight.
Henry fought for weeks through the German hedgerows, a warren of tall, deeply intertwined bushes that Americans often think of as small obstacles. In reality, it was often nearly impossible to get to the other side of these hedgerows, even when you could hear Germans speaking just on the other side of them. Henry was shot and wounded in the weeks following D-Day and captured by the Germans as a POW. It was a brutal imprisonment: he was forced to work in coal mines and endure endless cold, starvation and abuse by his captors. He dropped to just about 90 pounds and realized that he would soon die of starvation if he did not attempt to escape. He and another American soldier made a break for it after a full day in the coal mines and found themselves hiding in a German farmer’s barn. A German police officer tracked them down and attempted to arrest them and return them to captivity. The soldier with Henry was shot and killed but Henry grabbed a tool from the barn and killed the officer; he still has his Lugar pistol. Moving only at night to avoid detection, Henry evaded back to Allied lines over many weeks, finally arriving back to an American unit still wearing his filthy and tattered D-Day uniform. At war’s end, he returned to his hometown of Clinton, Iowa to marry his high school sweetheart, start a family, and run a small business.
Langrehr’s
conspicuous service as a combat engineer and paratrooper exemplify the greatest
traditions, capabilities, and values of the 82nd Airborne Division, the Corps
of Engineers, and the United States Army. The Caterpillar de Fluery
Medal-Silver level is presented to recognize his personal contributions to
allied victory and his selfless service to our nation.
For more photos from Henry Langrehr’s Caterpillar Silver De Fleury presentation please go to the Iowa National Guard’s Flickr page
