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<p><em>Leslie Gene “Les” Langseth</em> was born in Pelican Rapids, a picturesque town in West Central Minnesota’s lake country. As it turned out, this tranquil “land of sky-blue waters” formed the bookends to Les’s full, adventuresome life of service to his country and fellow citizens. Salutatorian of his hometown high school’s Class of 1955, Les was marked as an ideal candidate for the U.S. Military Academy thanks to his distinguished record in academics, sports, and social activities. A keen-eyed guidance counselor recognized this talent and pointed Les toward what was the nation’s first engineering school. Though West Point was largely unfamiliar to him, Les followed this advice. Indeed, membership in his high school’s select “Knights of Science” club had signaled his innate talent and predilection for the subject. Thus, after taking the Oath of Allegiance on July 3, 1956, Les began his life’s journey at his Rockbound Highland Home.</p>
<p>Les thrived during his four years at West Point. He graduated 22nd in his class of 550, won numerals in lacrosse, wore stars (top five percent in academics) for two years, and the red sash of a lieutenant as a “firstie.” A much-liked and respected member of Company H-2, quartered in the relative isolation of the Lost Fifties, Les manifested his cool, competent, friendly demeanor through the thick and thin of cadet life. Popular and friendly to all, he was sure to help those who needed it, whether with academics or the exigencies of daily cadet life. At graduation, he chose Engineers, of course.</p>
<p>Marrying his high school sweetheart, Geraldine (Gerry) Bowers, was also a sure thing. He from the countryside; she from the town, they had met in high school, and their affection only grew while Les was at West Point. Soon after receiving her diploma as a registered nurse from St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Fargo, ND, Gerry moved to the Hudson Highlands, where Les took advantage of her proximity to visit every moment his First Class privileges permitted. They became man and wife one week after graduation, and their son Lee was born in 1961.</p>
<p>With graduation, Les began a 20-year journey of commissioned military service that provided unique opportunities to apply his talents and energy as an Army engineer around the globe. The year 1963 brought him to the 58th Engineer Company stationed in Fulda, West Germany, charged with keeping and deploying atomic demolition munitions that supported the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which patrolled the Cold War’s tense front lines. During the Vietnam War, Les served with the 809th Engineering Battalion building strategic roads in southern Thailand and, a few years later, with the 20th Engineer Battalion (Combat) providing engineering support in the Pleiku area of South Vietnam. In between these assignments, the Army had sent Les to its Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, VA, where his daughter Lynne was born in 1965. Then, in 1966, he was sent across the country to the University of California–Davis for a master’s degree in engineering applied science, followed by three years at West Point as an instructor in the Physics Department.</p>
<p>In 1970, Les joined the U.S. Army’s Safeguard Command developing the Mikelsen Missile Complex at Nekoma, ND. There, he supervised construction of the complex’s giant radar pyramid, built with 714,000 cubic feet of concrete. Finished in 1974, the structure dominates the area’s plains to this day. Mission completed, Les was reassigned to the Defense Nuclear Agency’s Field Command at Albuquerque, NM, where he took up new challenges in a quite different climate.</p>
<p>Assigned to the staff of NATO’s war fighting headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Europe in 1977, Les and family moved to Mons Belgium, where they spent three years in the area’s vibrant, multi-cultural environment. Nevertheless, now a lieutenant colonel, Les and Gerry decided to retire from Army life and pursue new endeavors: Gerry as a certified oncology nurse; Les as a faculty member at North Dakota State University’s Industrial Engineering and Management Department in Fargo, ND. In order to live near Les’s aging parents and assist in their care, they took up residence in Moorhead, MN, not far from Fargo, and continued in their new occupations for 14 years, while the family had expanded to include three grandchildren.</p>
<p>Finally, in 1996, the time came to retire from professional life, and they moved to their vacation home on the shores of Lake Lida, just outside Pelican Rapids. This brought Les back full circle to his birthplace. Here, he and Gerry enjoyed 27 years of pleasant, active retirement life. Gerry became a leader in the community’s “Welcome Place,” “Friendship Bridge” and annual “Friendship Festival,” helping integrate new arrivals with diverse cultures. Les strongly supported Gerry in these endeavors while serving for many years as endowment committee chairman for his church and pursuing his many hobbies, photography and fishing being high on the list. Notably, Les also used his engineering talent to construct large, impressive “apartments” for the purple martins that would take up annual residence in them.</p>
<p>Thus, young Les grew up in this “land of sky-blue waters” and in later life enjoyed the pleasures of retirement there. In between these bookends he created an adventurous, productive life with a loving family. Now a member of the Long Gray Line, Les passed away in his hometown, secure in the knowledge of a life well lived.</p>
<p><em>— His Roommate</em></p>
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