25-04-2025
Henry Langrehr, WW2 veteran, author from Clinton, dies at 100
Henry Langrehr, decorated World War II veteran and author from Clinton, died Wednesday at the age of 100. Langrehr was just 19 when he jumped from a plane over France during the war, moments after the plane lost a wing. He crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse; a friend got hung up on the village church steeple and only survived by pretending to be dead for hours. Langrehr was eventually captured by the German Army, then sent to work at a prison camp. He was determined to escape rather than die at that camp. He eventually succeeded in escaping and found an American unit two weeks later, still wearing his tattered D-Day uniform almost a year after his capture.
Langrehr wrote a book, 'Whatever It Took,' his first-person account of growing up in Clinton, joining the Army, surviving the brutal German work camp and returning home to Clinton to raise a family. After the war, he ran a contracting business when he returned to Clinton.
Langrehr was awarded the French Legion of Honor Medal by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy at an event in Washington, DC on November 6, 2007. He was most recently awarded the De Fleury Medal, the Army's highest award for excellence in the engineer regiment, at a ceremony at the Quad Cities Veterans Outreach Center. Langrehr told Our Quad Cities News at the ceremony, 'I just love our country. My country has been so good to me.'
Langrehr spent 77 years with his wife Arlene, until her death in February of 2023. They had four children, whom he considered his life's greatest accomplishment.
He was considered a dear friend to First Army and the Rock Island Arsenal. A news release from First Army said last June, Mr. Langrehr returned to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. His First Army friends helped him search for the greenhouse he'd famously crashed through on June 6, 1944. They found it after an exhaustive search, with Langrehr leading the charge, his memory at 99 still sharp as a tack.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks released a statement after Langrehr's death was announced. 'On the day he should have been graduating from Clinton High School, Henry Langrehr stooped near the open door of a C-47 transport plane on his way to France. Below him, 5,000 ships were crossing the English Channel on their way to the beaches of Normandy.
'As his aircraft crossed the coast, small orange explosions began peppering his plane. Next to him, shrapnel hit a fellow paratrooper. To his left, a plane lost a wing. When the jump light finally turned green, Mr. Langrehr, only 19-years-old, leapt out the door. In the chaos of the night, most jumpers missed their drop zones. Members of his regiment floated down directly into the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, amid the pandemonium of burning buildings in the town square. Jumping from just 500 feet, Mr. Langrehr had only enough time for his parachute to open before crashing through the glass roof of a greenhouse. Right behind him was his friend, who got hung up on the village church steeple and only survived by feigning death for hours. Mr. Langrehr fought through the infamous French hedgerows for weeks before being severely wounded and taken prisoner by the German Army. He was sent to a work camp deep behind German lines.
'Mr. Langrehr eventually escaped, evading westward from his German captors for two weeks before turning himself into an American unit, still wearing his original – now tattered and filthy – D-Day uniform almost a year later. After the war, Mr. Langrehr returned to Clinton, where he became a successful small business owner. He married his hometown sweetheart and raised a family – including a son who would go on to serve two tours in Vietnam, as well grandsons who would eventually serve in the very same 82nd Airborne unit Mr. Langrehr was with on D-Day.
'Mr. Langrehr was a dear friend to First Army and the Rock Island Arsenal. He was a consistent presence at promotions and retirements; he spent the 75th anniversary of D-Day in First Army's headquarters speaking to troops about his WWII service and time as a POW; he always cheered for Army at the annual RIA Army-Navy flag football game. Last June, Mr. Langrehr returned to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. His First Army friends helped him search for the greenhouse he'd famously crashed through on 6 June, 1944. They found it after an exhaustive search – with Mr. Langrehr leading the charge, his memory at 99 still sharp as a tack. As he gazed at the greenhouse that afternoon, Mr. Langrehr had said simply: 'I just wanted to see it one more time. I've seen it in my mind's eye my entire adult life.' There wasn't a dry eye among anyone who witnessed it.
'Mr. Langrehr inspired everyone who knew him. Anyone privileged enough to hear him talk about his perilous flight to France in the early hours of D-Day will remember the image he always described: looking down from his airplane to see the English Channel packed with U.S. vessels poised to carry out the most iconic operation in modern military history. 'Only America could do that,' he would marvel. 'Only America.''
Service details for Langrehr are pending.
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