Henry Bertel Larson

WORLD WAR II VETERAN
Henry Bertel Larson

On September 11, 1917, which makes me 101 years young. I was born in a hospital, which was located in Ames, Iowa and was given the name by my parents — Henry Bertel Larson. My middle name was given to me, out of respect of my Mom's name. My home was near Huxley, Iowa, on a 120-acre farm. My parents were; Hans H. Larson - Father, Bertha (Mikelson) Larson - Mother.

My three (3) brothers and one (1) sister were;
Brother - Harry Larson Born 1901
Brother - Kenneth Larson Born 1903
Brother - Gaylord Larson Born 1905
Sister - Alma (Larson) Olson Born 1907

I attended Huxley Public School for 12 years and graduated in 1935 and I was my class' valedictorian I attended American Institute of Business (Am), Des Moines, Iowa from 1935 thru 1937. I always appreciated the friendliness of AD3 Founder, E.O. Fenton, who would greet me by my first name for years after AD3 had placed me on my first Permanent job. I studied Business Law at Shrivenham American University, Shrivenham, England in 1946. I also studied advanced Accounting at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.

I served in the United States Army from July 20, 1943 thru April 30, 1946 — Military Police, St Paul, MN. I was also assigned to work in the area of dealing with German Prisoner of War Camp, which was located in Camp' Carson, Colorado. I was then assigned to be in the 418th Ordinance Evacuation Company, European Theatre of War for 14 months, 7 days. Of our numerous duties, the major role for our Unit was in charge of taking new tanks or fixed and repaired tanks to the front line of the War and to bring back the damaged tanks and equipment

My military rank was P.F.C. — some of my duties were in keeping the Units or our Company's records and also I was assigned to be the driver for our Company's Commander. The Commander often wanted to exchange our roles and instead of having me be his driver, the Commander wanted to drive the jeep himself, This was fine with me, since he was the Commander and then his Superior Officer learned that he was driving the jeeps himself and the Superior Officer made it perfectly clear that the
Commander was not too drive the jeep or equipment himself; that's PFC Larson' role and description, that job is not for you. This was made very clear to the Commander and our roles immediately changed.

We were stationed in Poix Terron, France, 60 miles north of Paris. Several members of my Unit convinced me to go on a trip with 4 others on a very BIG and LARGE tank transport truck to southern France, to the front lines of where the War was being fought to take new or repaired tanks and retrieve damaged tanks and bring them back to our Unit's location.

On our way hack to our Unit with the damaged tanks on this huge truck, we stopped for the night in a large City at a 5 street traffic circle, to rest and sleep in the vehicle. It seemed to me that most of the folks in the city came to greet us As some of the young men in the Armed Forces might act or say things that are out of line, as many young men do now as they did back then, speaking in English about what they would do with some of the vast number of the City folks that had all came to view our Unit and see what we were doing in their City. Keep in mind that I was, married and had the love of my life living back in the States, and I simply kept my mouth shut. After a short time period two (2) young ladies invited two (2) of us on behalf of their parents to spend the night, one (1) at each of their houses.

Our silence at the beginning earned us good suppers, we were able to visit with the families, take a nice bath and we got to receive their sincere Thanks for rescuing France from Hitler and we even got to sleep in a comfortable bed (a feather bed for me),instead of sleeping under the Truck in the outdoors.

After the War with Germany ended, while waiting for my time to get a ship back home, I was allowed to travel thru England (Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest), Scotland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway — 21 days visiting relatives and also traveled thru Luxemburg, 10 Countries in all. My Father was born in Norway and my Mother's heritage was of Norwegian decent.

During my entire life, I've had several wonderful things happen to me and have met some great and wonderful people, but in 1936 was probably one of the most luckiest nights of my entire life. I met Helen Mae Kail at a Friday Night AJB dance. It was LOVE at first sight and we were married on August 6, 1939, at Bethany Lutheran Church, in Kelley, Iowa. We were more than just Husband and Wife, we were actually Soul Mates, we were each others best friends, we actually did just about everything together, we wanted to always be together. We had a marriage that many can only wish for and we were married to each other for 69 years.

In 1939 when Helen and I were married together, we took a honeymoon trip to Colorado by train. For work, I ran the office for a refrigeration and air conditioning sales company — York Products Inc. in Des Moines, Iowa, from 1937 until 1951, interrupted by my Army Service during World War II. For doing my job for York Products I was paid $60.00 per month. In 1951 I was fortunate enough to become an Accountant in the Offices of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, also located in the City of Des Moines, Iowa until my retirement in 1981.

Helen and I enjoyed vacation trips to many different states including; Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, California to mention just a few. After retirement we spent 26 winters (3 to 4 months each) in Edinburg, Texas. We both enjoyed so many different things together and with several special friends, such as Kay and Murray Buchanan. We'd play bridge and different games, Swimming, riding our bikes, many baseball games that we'd watch in the warm sun together (Pam American University), Winter Texan Organization, parades, yearly bus trips to all different parts of Mexico and even a plane ride to Costa Rica, etc., we did every thing together.

In 1941 Helen and myself made a major decision together, that being to build our first house, so we could turn that house into our home. We finally found a lovely, large and wooded lot that we purchased in the amount of $400.00, we had our home built for us and the total amount for the finished house came to the amount of $4,000:00.

We decided with my new job and our new home that we both wanted to start a family.

3 Children

Lynda Lou (Larson) Solberg - deceased
James Henry Larson
Debbie Diane (Larson) Rincon

6 Grand Children

Richard E. Caldwell, Zefe Rincon, Patricia (Caldwell) Frazier, Miranda Rincon, Marcia De Souza, Breanna Nicole "Bre".

Many Great-Great Grand Children.

In September, 2009, 1 was privileged to enjoy an Honor Flight for 270 World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. to view about 8 historic places including the World War II monument.' As I was viewing this wonderful World War II monument and having a number of thoughts going through my head, I felt a little tug on my sweater. As I looked down I saw this small young 3 or 4-year-old little boy. I looked down at him and asked him "how are you little boy"? As he held onto my sweater, he pointed to his Parents and told me that they had told him, as they pointed towards me, "That is a live, living hero". They told him that he should go over to him and try and touch him, I reached down to this little boy, and I picked him up and held him in my arms and gave Kira a hug and then put him back down on the ground. He was so excited that he ran back over to his Mom and Dad and then all three of them formed a small circle and hugged each other as they cried tears of joy together as a family.

I am not a Hero; I just did my job and what was expected of me from my Country. When America needs help, real American's do what their Country asks from them. The real true Hero's are the men and woman that served their Country as I did, but they gave the ultimate, they laid their lives on the line and died serving their Country, for all citizens of the United States of America and around the World. By doing so, by all Veterans we can now live under FREEDOM, be safe and protected. Since World War I and World War II and all other War's since, we all have millions and millions of Veterans to be thankful too.

God Bless the United States of America.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, October 29, 2018 at Hamilton’s Funeral Home, 605 Lyon Street, Des Moines. Funeral service will be 1 p.m. Tuesday, October 30, 2018, at Capitol Hill Lutheran Church, 511 Des Moines Street, followed by burial at Highland Memory Gardens. All Veterans and all Americans are invited to Henry’s services.

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