A photo of Harold Lange, taken in 1957 at Fort Carson, Colorado during his basic training. Lange was 23.

NEW ULM — Harold Lange joined the 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles,” in 1958 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

He said the decision wasn’t difficult.

“When the 101st Airborne came by and they got done speaking–I heard another $69 a month jump pay– and I said ‘sign me up,'” Lange said. “I was gonna go for it no matter what. Even if it was a death sentence.”

Lange, 91, was initially drafted into the armed forces at the end of 1957, and was shipped to Minneapolis, where he went through the registration process and medical examination.

His first stop as a serviceman was Fort Carson, Colorado for two months of basic training. He said that was strenuous.

“Yeah, for never experiencing army life and running and standing tall,” he said. “And for a wake up call in the morning they had everybody go outside and pick up cigarette butts.

After basic training, it was off to Fort Ord, California for field communications.

“Well, then the different careers come by. When you finished at California, second basic, you could choose what job you lined up once you were in the service. Okay. Make a choice.”

Lange decided he wanted to be a paratrooper and shipped out to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

“That’s where the 101st is. And went through all the jump training. First they had like a 30-foot tower. You go up to the, well, kind of like enclosed silo or a building,” Lange said.

“And so you had your chute on, and then you had to push yourself with your hands out of the door,” he said. “But they were sitting right down there, and they could see that if you didn’t do it right, you’d better go up. Try it again.”

Throughout his career, Lange accomplished 13 jumps.

“About once a month, they would take us out to a big open field for the jumps,” he said. “We were called Screaming Eagles, because normally when you see eagles, they fly at this certain height, the air is quiet. They say from the ground temperature and the clouds that it’s easier to fly in there. But when we got on the field, they were gone.”

Lange’s two years of service came after the Korean War and before U.S. combat troops were deployed in Vietnam, but his strategic unit was ready for duty. A few times it seemed like his unit might deploy, but it never happened.

“A couple of times during the two-year career, word came down, pack these big shipping containers, pack all the equipment, all your stuff,” Lange said. “We’re going to be leaving in two days. So we did and everything fit and we sat and waited two days. Word came back, it’s canceled.”

Lange said he was even able to earn his GED while at Fort Campbell.

“I went to Morgan High school,” he said. “I did two years when I was 16, I thought, well, I ain’t going to school no more. Didn’t need it. Yeah, well, when I got drafted, I see I didn’t graduate with my class,.

“They had kind of a building where you could take tests, increase your high school or college schooling. And so they interviewed me and I said I had two years high school. And so they said, well, just take the test. And I had that much in the mind that I passed it.”

Lange said they sent a report to the superintendent of Morgan schools, who then forwarded the diploma to him.

“And now he gets invited to the class reunions,” his wife LaVonne said.