Brother given decorations of ex-soldier long mourned

LAWRENCE -- With a slight trace of tears in his eyes, William J. Lanen stood still and straight as the 87-year-old retired Army colonel stared down at his younger brother's grave.

''He was a good soldier," Lanen said of Private First Class Walter F. Lanen, who is buried at the Immaculate Conception Cemetery.

A few minutes earlier, two strangers had handed William Lanen long-lost mementos of his brother.

They included a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart with two clusters, and two other medals that Walter Lanen had earned while serving with the 339th Regimental Combat Team in the US Army during World War II.

The medals were discovered this week in the basement of Larry's Service Station on Haverhill Street as co-owners Emile Levasseur and Bill McDaniel were cleaning up.

Levasseur said the medals were in a yellowed plastic bag that had been tossed inside a plastic 5-gallon bucket, along with other items discarded long ago.

Levasseur, who has had the business since 1971, said he had no idea how Lanen's medals had ended up in the basement. Walter Lanen, who had lived in Lawrence, died in 1967.

''We have no idea how they got there," Levasseur said. ''Not a clue."

But after finding them, inscribed with the name of Walter F. Lanen, the service station owners tried to track down the owner. A newspaper account in The Eagle-Tribune led a producer from the television station CBS4 to find William Lanen, who is living in retirement in Bow, N.H.

Yesterday, the Boles Baron McAuliffe Yameen Funeral Home in Lawrence sent Marc Hebbelinck and their limousine to take Lanen to Lawrence.

''It's a great story," Hebbelinck said of the volunteer effort. ''It's nice that the medals are going back to his brother."

Hebbelinck pulled up to the station around 11 a.m. and William Lanen walked in. McDaniel and Levasseur handed over the medals in an impromptu ceremony that was captured by newspaper and television cameras.

''It's amazing that they would be found after so long," Lanen said as he thanked the two men. He called the medals ''manifestations of my brother's service."

William Lanen said he had seen his brother a few times when both were serving in Italy. He said he had been assigned to the field artillery while his brother was in the infantry.

The 339th Regimental Combat Team was part of the 85th Infantry Division, and it participated in the campaign to push the Nazis out of Italy in 1944 and 1945.

William Lanen, who served 31 years in the Army and said he saw combat in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, could not recall how his brother had earned the Bronze Star while they were in Italy.

''He was a bona fide hero," said William Lanen.

The Lanens grew up in Lawrence.

They had a third brother, Eddie, who served with the Marines in the Pacific Theater, William Lanen said.

In a second gesture of kindness, Hebbelinck drove William Lanen to the cemetery where his brother is buried.

The cemetery director, James M. Jacobs, said he had installed a new flag at the grave.

''Look what he did for us," Jacobs said. ''We wouldn't be enjoying this beautiful sunny day in the USA if it wasn't for people like him. And that's the truth."