WWII veteran George Hansen shares his testimony in chapel

Behind every individual is a unique story. For WWII veteran George Hanson, this story began at young age, and had many unexpected turns along the way.

On Jan. 30, 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. Over the next decade, his regime would increase drastically in size and strength. Though Britain and France declared war against Germany and Hitler’s army, the U.S did not want to be a part of the global conflict. . Despite attempts by the U.S. to stay neutral, their involvement in the war was inevitable. The Japanese bombing of the U.S. Naval base on Pearl Harbor ended negotiations, Dec. 7, 1941. The U.S. declared war on Germany, Japan, and Italy, Dec. 11, four days after the attack.

At the time of the declaration, the U.S. was not prepared for the global conflict they were entering. Men, women, and children were forced to leave their daily jobs and activities. For many individuals, this meant switching production into supplies and war materials. For approximately 18 million young men, this meant enlisting or being drafted into various service branches. Hansen knew that eventually his number would be drawn, but he already decided what he wanted to do in the military.

At the time Hansen and his friends felt united and full of patriotism. There was no division or politics behind the war that divided people like it does nowadays. Hansen believes people need to avoid the division parties can cause, and join together as a unified America.

[fusion_soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/232773279″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

“The biggest difference I notice now verses then when I was in the Army, is that back then it wasn’t Republican or Democrat,” Hansen said. “It was our country, unified. All the young guys like me wanted to get involved. We all believed it was a just war. The Japanese and the Germans were after us. We felt it was a wonderful time to stand up for our country.”

Hansen’s life goal at an early age was to become a pilot. He hoped to fly fighter planes in the Army Air Corps. However his color blindness forbade him from enlisting as a pilot. Yet a resilient Hansen would not let this hold him back from serving his country. He had heard of what was going on in Europe, as well as the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Though it was not what he had previously hoped to pursue, Hansen joined the Army, and was eventually assigned to a machine gun squad. He was deployed to Germany, where he joined his squad as they deployed into combat. Hansen had no idea what he was going into, and he made a promise to God that would later come back to change his life.

On the ride in the half truck transportation vehicle, a German artillery shell landed a direct hit onto Hansen’s vehicle. Despite those sitting around him suffering major injuries, some fatal, Hansen only had minor wounds to attend to. Luckily for the group hit, the vehicle behind them in the convoy was a medic unit. The wounded were quickly attended to, and Hansen as well as many of his comrades were taken away to a hospital.

After a short time recovering in the hospital, Hansen returned to his squad. When Hansen met up with his squad, he only recognized a few of the faces. The rest of them were all new recruits that had been deployed as replacements for those killed or seriously wounded. Hansen also received some surprising news, he learned he was assigned to be the new squad leader. Now Hansen, who had still yet to fire his weapon in combat, was the leader of a machine gun squadron.

With all the controversial issues that seem to divide American’s today, Hansen believes it would be harder for current generations to unite around a world conflict. Hansen believes it would be harder to fight a war when there’s antagonism from your own countrymen and hostility being shown towards the military. Hansen still believes that young people should follow the command of their leaders regardless.

“I think current generations should cooperate with the leadership in regards of whether or not they should enlist in the service,” Hansen said. “One of my grandkids is on a submarine right now, because that’s what he wanted to do. But I do think it would be harder to be involved because now it seems like there’s a lot of antagonism against war. It would be hard to go serve with your whole energy.”

Hansen had many close encounters during his time in combat. In one instance, Hansen was assigned to check a path leading to a perch for a machine gun crew to set up on. Hansen ran up to the top, then returned after having seen no danger. However the machine gun group who followed up the path after him did not have such luck. Three of the groups members were struck by landmines on their way up. Landmines that Hansen had somehow avoided on his trek to and from the destination.

In another instance, Hansen and his men were sent out to neutralize a German convoy that was moving down a road. As Hansen’s squad snuck up on the vehicle, Hansen took point position. He saw a single German standing, and instead of killing him, decided to simply shoot above his head to scare him. The German immediately surrendered. Unknown to Hansen and his squad at the time, there was an entire group of Germans on the opposite side of the truck who had sat down to rest. However after seeing their comrade surrender, they decided to get up and do the same. By not shooting the first German in the head and killing him, Hansen avoided a firefight that would have undoubtedly ensued, saving the lives of his squad members.

Hansen eventually returned from the war after countless other close encounters. After his homecoming, Hansen married the love of his life. Joyce, soon given the Hansen name, married George, and they remained married until Joyce’s passing.

When growing up in the church, Hansen always felt missions work wasn’t for him. However the promise Hansen made was that if God got him out alive, he would do anything he wanted him to. After returning from the war, Hansen honored his agreement and began serving as a missionary. He eventually found a great passion for the Brazilian people. Hansen still to this day travels to Brazil preaching the gospel, and hopes to make another trip to the 2016 Olympics to continue to spread God’s message.

Hansen is just one of countless veterans who have served our nation with honor and selflessness. This Veteran’s Day, take the time to find a veteran who served, or the family of a soldier who payed the ultimate price for our freedom, and thank them for enabling us to live in a safer world today because of what they did.

For more information on George Hansen’s, as well as countless other veterans’ stories, visit the Hometown Heroes Radio website.