Page 102 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

Earl Langley
y dad was in his late
80s when he and my
Mmother requested
replacement medals from his
WWII days, medals that had
been stolen while he and my
mother were on the mission
field in Taiwan for 11 years. I
remember when the medals
arrived, and we took them to be
framed. But not having grown
up in a military family, I had no
idea of the importance of them –
especially the Purple Heart and
the Bronze Star. It was only a
few days later, as I sat with my
dad, that he began to reminisce,
sharing the story of his greatest
challenge in the four+ years of his
military career, which took him
from northern Africa, through
Italy and Germany and into
France before the war ended.
Earl Langley was born in
Vernon, Texas to L.O. and
Josie Langley on Jan. 23, 1915.
He was their oldest son. He
grew up in Levelland, TX
where my grandfather farmed
and/or worked on a ranch.
102 Senior Link
There Just Wasn't a
Choice!
by Marilyn Langley Garrett
After graduating as a with a gun.” It put him square
Levelland Lobo, four- on the front lines. He moved
year-letterman, Earl up the ranks from private to
moved to Lubbock to corporal to staff sergeant, where
attend Texas Tech, but he commanded a “squad” of 9-10
the year was 1939, and privates. He shared with me that
war loomed. While there were times he thought he
attending First Baptist would die of homesickness; he’d
Church in Lubbock, never been out of West Texas
he met Lois Henson, before boot camp.
a church secretary
and recent Texas Tech The day came that he and two
graduate. They fell in privates, orderlies under his
love and married Oct. 10, command, were ordered to move
1941. Earl had already into the battle to search for and
enlisted and finished treat the wounded near a hill
boot camp when he that the Americans were trying
was home for a weekend in desperately to hold, a critical
early December. Early Sunday position above the German
morning, the phone rang, and infantry. When the three arrived,
he and Lois rushed to the radio they found a young lieutenant
to hear the words, “... a date that who had just “lost his nerve”.
will live in infamy!” America (They called it “shell shock” in
was at war. WWII.) He was just lying in a
fetal position. He had been the
Their lives changed immediately, highest-ranking survivor, and the
as did the rest of America, and team holding the hill was down
Earl hurried back to his unit. It to three men. “There weren’t any
was a tearful and suspenseful choices; my men had to carry him
goodbye. Over the next months, back on a stretcher, leaving me
Earl saw little of his wife, but as the senior officer, responsible
they did have the joy of the birth to hold that hill - at all costs.”
of their first baby by the next Earl sent his team back, and he
September. Shortly thereafter, and the two privates headed
Earl left for the Atlantic front, back to the top of the hill. “We
heading to northern Africa and sat there, back to back, for three
the battles against Rommel, “the days. Sometimes, shots rang out;
desert fox”. we took some fire and some hits,
and we returned fire toward the
Earl would likely have been a point of action. It rained some;
conscientious objector, but no we were soaked and cold, hungry
such thing existed in light of and thirsty, but we held that hill.
Pearl Harbor, so he did the next There just wasn’t a choice.”
best thing – became a medic. He Three days later, the advancing
carried a gun, but he remarked, Allies came upon them, surprised
“I shot more men than most in that the hill was still in American
the war – but just with a syringe. hands and even more surprised
I’m not sure I ever shot anyone that anyone was alive; in fact,