By Deborah Larsen
Harry Otto Lang, Jr.
Harry Otto Lang, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February 28, 1922, the son of Harry and Doris Grant Lang. He attended Cooley High School, where he was a star track athlete. After attending Colgate University, Harry joined the U.S. Marine Corps as an officer. During this time, his parents purchased 100 acres in Avon Township. The new Lang family home was located on Walton Boulevard, just west of Livernois.
While training at Camp Pendleton, Harry learned from his mother that the Langs’ new neighbors in Avon Township, the McCulloughs, had a daughter his age. When Harry came home to Rochester on leave, he and Ginny McCullough were set up for a date by their respective parents. The young couple hit it off almost immediately, and when Harry had to report back to Camp Pendleton he promised to write to Ginny. Decades later, his letters to Ginny—whom he married in 1946—and those he wrote home to his parents were published in a book entitled Letters of Love and War, 1944-1945.
Harry’s published letters reveal that he was involved in one of the momentous events of the war. His infantry platoon was sent to a hideaway base in the Russell Islands of the South Pacific in December 1944. Harry was given command of a rifle platoon and his unit trained for jungle combat until April 1945, when it participated in the invasion of Okinawa, the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater.
From Harry’s letters, Ginny and his parents learned that he spent weeks living in a foxhole, unshaved and unbathed. By May, his platoon of 54 men had only 14 remaining. “I guess the numbers speak for themselves,” he wrote.
Two months after landing at Okinawa, Harry was hit in a grenade attack. He was spared shrapnel wounds but suffered a blast concussion and was evacuated to a hospital ship. Upon his return to the U.S. in August 1945, Harry learned that he had been awarded the Bronze Star for heroic actions on Okinawa. His citation read in part:
When the rifle company to which he was attached was halted by heavy artillery fire . . . Second Lieutenant Lang moved up under intense hostile machine gun and mortar fire with the men of his platoon . . . [and] led them into the assault on a key hill, which, when taken, secured the flank of the company and covered its advance. By his initiative and courageous leadership, Second Lieutenant Lang contributed materially to the rapid advance of the company with minimum losses . . .
After the war, Ginny and Harry married and built a home in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Harry was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, and returned to Camp Pendleton to train rifle platoons. At the close of his second war, Harry came home to Michigan to devote his time to Ginny and their five children.
Harry Otto Lang, Jr., died on February 29, 2012, and was laid to rest at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Michigan.
More about Harry O. Lang’s wartime experiences can be found in his book: Lang, Harry O., Jr. Letters of Love and War, 1944-1945: A True Story. (Traverse City, Mich.: Sage Creek Press, 1998).
Photo credit: Cindy Oliphant