Virgil Tangborn never made it home from World War II, but his legacy lives on 80 years after D-Day
NORMANDY, France — Twenty-eight years ago, history teacher Steve Werle received a lesson of his own.
"There was a sheave of papers on my desk, this very sheave of papers right here," Werle said.
The school's principal had left him the story of Virgil Tangborn.
"He's not going to be on the test. He's not going to be on the AP exam," Werle said.
But in many ways, Virgil's journal is more important than any exam because it's a reminder of just how precious and precarious life can be.
"It was a journal of his thoughts and feelings, kind of before Pearl Harbor and after," Werle said. "When he realizes he is going to be caught up in this event."
Werle has his students read it as part of their World War II studies at the Academy of Holy Angels.
"I might be back in a week. I might be back at the end of the decade. Nobody knows until I go to Fort Snelling," Virgil wrote.
Virgil survived the Allied invasion, but just eight days after arriving in France, he was killed by Germans while trying to rescue a fellow soldier from a burning truck.
"It's interesting. I get tears sometimes when I talk about this," Werle said.
One of the last things Virgil wrote was that his dad believed he should go into educational work after the war. In a sense, Werle helped make that happen.
"And I always tell the kids that, in some ways, he did become a teacher. He taught me a lot about sacrifice, a lot about service and deferring your hopes and dreams for something much larger," Werle said.
Like Werle, Wayne Hoff has a vested interest in Virgil's legacy. Virgil was his mom's brother — his uncle.
"She talked about him quite frequently," Hoff said. "He was just very, very kind, tender-hearted. That's the impression I got of him."
It's a big reason why Hoff has fought for decades to save the little school his uncle attended in Nary, Minnesota. He even secured grants to keep the building intact.
Had Virgil survived the war, Hoff believes he may have returned to Nary to teach at that very building.
"We should try and learn from history that war is never a good way to settle things. We should try to work for peace. I'm sure Virgil would want the same," Hoff said.
Nary isn't the only small town that continues to honor Virgil. Across the Atlantic Ocean in Perrier, France, a monument was built with Virgil in mind.
Christian Levaufre's father pushed for this memorial and it was finally built 20 years ago. Virgil is one of four soldiers highlighted for helping liberate Pierrer in 1944. It's an act of bravery that's still taught in nearby schools.
"We think that it — if not the most beautiful, it's one of the most beautiful memorials dedicated to the soldiers," Levaufre said.
And it's not far from Virgil's gravesite.
Virgil's life was cut short by war, but his legacy lives on — in France, in Nary and in Werle's classroom.
