Rock Falls veteran 
served amid typhoons

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Harold Hagenow of Rock Falls walks through the World War II Memorial Tuesday in Washington, D.C., during his Honor Flight tour. (Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@svnmail.com)

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Note to readers: This is the 10th in a series of Sauk Valley Newspapers stories on some of the World War II veterans who went to Washington, D.C., Tuesday on the Whiteside County Honor Flight.

ROCK FALLS – In June 1945, Harold Hagenow received his draft letter to be shipped off to fight in World War II.

Unlike most young men, he was excited to go. It wasn’t the fight he was excited about, though: The then-21-year-old wanted to go to Germany.

Specifically, he wanted to see Hagenow, a small town in northern Germany, where his great-grandpa grew up. 

“My folks spoke German, and I could read and write German when I went into the service, so that’s where I wanted to go,” he said.

Much to his dismay, Hagenow, a high-speed operator for the Army Air Corps, was shipped off to the Philippines. By the time he finally made his way to the South Pacific that fall, the war was over.

His commanding officer didn’t want Hagenow and the rest of the troops to miss out on the fun, he said. The first night the troops got to Manila, they were ordered to dig a fox hole.

“The captain said to us ‘The war is over, but just in case, you need to dig a foxhole just so you know what’s it’s like to sleep in it,’” Hagenow said. “We dug it and stayed there all night.”

His time in Manila was fairly quiet, except for the violent typhoons that ripped across his path from time to time.

In fact, as he sailed on a U.S. transport boat from San Francisco to Manlla, a typhoon with 200 mph winds nearly sank the ship.

“When the typhoon hit, we were told to lie down in our bunks and we were strapped down by our ankles, our waist and our chests,” Hagenow said.

After serving more than a year, he retired from the Air Corps and returned home to his family farm in Waverly, Iowa. A year later, he met his future wife, Frieda. They and their three children settled in Rock Falls in 1971.

Hagenow was one of 37 World War II veterans who took the Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., Tuesday, to visit military memorials.

He was most looking forward to the World War II monument, he said.

“I never thought in my entire life that I would get to see it.”

The Honor Flight file

Harold Hagenow

Age: 83

City: Rock Falls

Branch: U.S. Army Air Corps

Rank: Private

Theater: South Pacific and Japan

Terms of service: June 1945 to December 1946

Employment: After leaving the Army, he worked at the A&P grocery store in Waverly, Iowa, as a manager until 1971, when he transferred to Eagle Grocery Store in Sterling. He retired in 1990.

Click to view The Vets of Honor Flight main page

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