Tuesday, June 6, 2017 | 1 a.m.
RIVERVIEW, Fla. — Harvey Lentz's blue eyes moisten as the memories flash through his mind.
Seven decades later, he is still haunted by the sights, the sounds and the smells of total war.
As he marks a century of life, Lentz still struggles to find words to describe what he encountered as an American soldier, moving from the beachhead at Normandy to the frigid woods of Belgium to an abandoned farm in Germany where he came upon the remains of concentration camp prisoners burned alive by the Nazis.
In the weeks before his 100th birthday , Lentz sits in the kitchen of his Riverview mobile home, his wife, LaVern, at his side, and closes his eyes.
"It's still hard to talk about."
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Harvey Lentz grew up on a 256-acre farm where his family tended dozens of head of cattle, 8 miles from the town of Hartington, Neb.
He quit school after eighth grade and in February 1941 enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard. He was joined by some other guys from his town, including Herman Hansen, who would become his best friend.
"I had a low number," Lentz says with a smile. "I knew I'd be drafted."
The rest of the world was engulfed in fighting that the United States avoided for a time. But Lentz had no idea about that.
"We didn't have any communications on the farm."
The 10 months of training that followed was mostly routine for Lentz and the other members of the 134th Infantry Regiment, better known as "The Nebraska Boys."
Everything changed on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Still, it wasn't until the spring of 1944 that the Nebraska regiment shipped out to England. One highlight there: a visit from war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who would later die covering combat.
In July 1944, Lentz and his regiment landed in Normandy, France.
It was a month after the Allied invasion and the beachhead was calm. But deep in the French countryside, the fighting turned bloody as Allied forces hit towns guarded by German troops and dug into the dense foliage known as hedgerows.
There were mounds of dirt and rock, some as high as 7 feet.
"German soldiers were behind each one of them. It took a long time to clean out the area."
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As he fought his way into Germany, Lentz captured historic images with his camera, a small Brownie that a sergeant allowed him to keep.
He spreads dozens of photos in front of him on his kitchen table in Riverview. There are tranquil images of him and his battle buddies at rest, a captured German railroad cannon, villages destroyed, enemy aircraft.
He picked up war memorabilia, too, including brass knuckles that could fire a .22-caliber bullet, a swastika banner taken from a dance hall and a hood ornament pulled from the wreckage of a German staff car.
"These bring back a lot of memories."
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In late December 1944, the German army pulled off a last-ditch offensive, the Battle of the Bulge. Lentz's unit accompanied Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army on one of the greatest tactical maneuvers in the history of war. They advanced 125 miles through torturous roads and bitter winter weather to relieve the 101st Airborne division, surrounded by Nazis at the town of Bastogne, Belgium.
Freezing cold, Lentz lined his foxhole with hay to keep warm.
After the end of one particularly brutal artillery barrage, he popped out of his foxhole to find the body of his friend, Herman Hansen.
"I got there about 15 minutes after he was killed," Lentz says, his voice halting as he chokes back tears. "He was on the ground and had turned blue."
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For Lentz, the war marched on. In February 1945, he earned a Bronze Star for working far out front of the Allied lines on a mine-clearing operation, "displaying a high order of personal bravery, sound judgment and leadership ability," according to a newspaper account at the time.
Two months later, he came across a horrific sight.
The retreating Nazis, marching prisoners from a concentration camp, rounded up hundreds of them — those too tired or ill to continue — in a barn near the German town of Gardelegen.
The Nazis set fire to the barn, killing nearly everyone. Those who lived were shot as they tried to escape the flames.
"It was awful to see," says Lentz, pausing to shut his eyes. "The stink was tremendous. There were more than 1,000 people burned alive."
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In May, the war in Europe ended. Lentz, a technical sergeant, spent some time with his comrades at Adolf Hitler's famous mountain retreat, the Eagle's Nest.
In 1948, he married LaVern Berglund, a woman from his hometown he didn't meet until after the war. She had served with the Women's Army Corps in Paris.
The couple had four children and moved to Florida in 2003 after Lentz retired from a life of farming.
Relatives and friends marked his 100 years with a celebration Saturday at the clubhouse of the Pleasant Living mobile home park.
His family says Lentz credits his longevity to keeping an open mind, and they take to heart a saying of his that reflects this: "You won't live very long if you expect everything to be perfect."
