Pictured: Glenn and Jean Hanenburg at their home in Coopersville, Mich. Glenn is a former Edgerton resident.

This week’s veteran does not live in the Edgerton area, but he grew up here. His story is so compelling, that we had to share it with our readers.

Glenn Hanenburg is a brother to Daryl Hanenburg who was featured last week. Glenn was drafted into the United States Army in late August 1965.

In 1965, when the Vietnam Conflict was in the early stages, but really starting to ramp up, army recruiters were crawling the countryside trying to find volunteers. They came to the Hanenburg farm and wanted Glenn to sign up. “I put him off, but one day I was tempted to join,” Glenn recalls. So he and Dean Zwart went to Sioux Falls thinking they would sign up.”

Recruiters would sell the idea of enlisting for three years to young men, telling them that if they enlisted they would get to choose where they served, rather than be in the infantry. But when you enlisted, you had to serve three years, rather than two.

While Glenn was sitting at the recruiter’s desk, that man took a phone call. Glenn could hear the conversation and the guy on the other end said, “Did you get that Hanenburg kid signed up yet? You better hurry up, his draft notice went out this morning!”

Glenn jumped up and ran right out of the office; his friend Dean was right behind him. And behind them both was the army recruiter trying to get them to stay and enlist!

Meanwhile, Glenn was planning to get married to Jean Lubben. The two had been sweethearts for years and had set a wedding date of Sept. 10. They married as planned on Sept. 10 and on Sept. 15, Glenn headed to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri.

One thing that stands out in Glenn’s mind about his eight weeks of boot camp and his eight weeks of Advanced Infantry Training, was how good the weather was. Ft. Leonard Wood was known for how miserable the weather was, but for his 8 weeks that fall, the weather was pleasant.

His AIT took place at Ft. Ord, California, and the weather there was also good. He had a bunk on the second floor, with a top bunk by a window. He could look out and see San Francisco Bay.

In the two weeks he had off between basic training and AIT, Glenn and Jean traveled to California together. Jean had just graduated from nurses training and had a job in Ripon, California. Glenn was not allowed to have a car on base, so he kept his car in a nearby town.

During AIT, he took a cab to that town every weekend and then took his car to Ripon. Sometimes he would take other soldiers with him. He would spend a few hours or a few days with Jean. Every time he was Absent Without Leave (AWOL), but he didn’t really care. He found another soldier to take care of his guard duty or kitchen patrol so that he would not be missed.

In fact, when their AIT was over, the army cancelled their scheduled leave time because they were afraid all the soldiers would go home and not come back. By this time, the rest of his family had come to California to see him one last time before he shipped out to Vietnam. They were staying in a nearby hotel, so wanting to see his wife and family one more time, he gave his uniform shirts with his name on them to a couple of soldiers from Hawaii. They didn’t look anything like midwestern farm boys, but no one was the wiser. “At that point I was not worried about it – If I got caught, what could they do, send me to Vietnam?”

Throughout his training, Glenn became friends with another guy named Don Harrison from Burwell, Nebraska. The army likes to do things alphabetically, so he and Harrison buddied up and they developed a deep friendship.

A platoon consists of 28 guys – four squads of seven. When they flew over to Vietnam, both he and Harrison were part of a group of 15 guys from their platoon on one plane. Miraculously, those same 15 guys would return home together a year later. That’s not to say that they didn’t all encounter a lot of dangerous situations along the way and they also lost many other good men to the war.

Glenn and an army buddy pulling guard duty above the bridge tower.

Glenn and his company were stationed at Dhion in South Vietnam. It was nothing but a tent city when they arrived in February 1966, but by the time they left a year later, it had been developed into a full military base with permanent housing, and stores that the soldiers and local civilians could use. There was the post exchange (PX) and places to buy a beer or pop.

Glenn’s company, the Army Infantry first division, “The Big Red One” as it was nicknamed, was a clearing company. They would travel to different areas where the army wanted to put a military post. They would land in an open area of the jungle where there was tall reed grass. The choppers would hover over the ground and they would bail out.

Glenn receiving the Bronze Star, which is a military medal awarded for heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone.