MSgt. Leon E. Lavender Hopes He Can Spend . Next 24 Years in Army to Retire With 30 Years' Service
 By Woodie Fitchgette, Binghamton Press Staff Writer

Captured six days after the Normandy invasion, MSgt. Leon E. Lavender of Binghamton spent the next 11 months suffering the horrors of Nazi prison camp brutality. He was beaten with a rubber hose. He spent 10 days In solitary for refusing to divulge vital information. And he was  nearly starved to death on several occasions.
    A former paratroop lieutenant, Sergeant Lavender- today, re-enlisted in .the infantry at the Binghamton Army Recruiting Station. He has been assigned to recruiting duty here.
 In Combat Six Days
   The sergeant, a native of Oklahoma, has been spending his terminal leave with his wife at their home, 420 Conklin Avenue. A veteran of five years in the army, Sergeant Lavender was a member of the 82d Airborne Division. He was in combat exactly six days. The rest of the time he spent in Nazi prisons in France, Germany and Poland.
   "A short time before H-Hour, we took off for the Cherbourg Peninsula." the sergeant said. "And things went wrong from the start. , "When I jumped, I landed on a road and broke a bone in my leg." he continued. "And that wasn't all. I was separated from my outfit. "We had landed right in the center of a German artillery concentration, and we caught hell."
Makes up Combat Team
   "There were some other guys around," he went on, "who'd lost contact with their outfits. So I made up a combat team of these fellows. "There were about 50 of us." the sergeant said. "We gave 'em a lot of trouble till our ammunition ran out."
   During the six days, Sergeant Lavender's combat team fought vastly superior German forces, and they lost 13 men. Sergeant Lavender hobbled around on his game leg without receiving any medical aid. "My boots helped a lot," he said. "But it gave me a lot of trouble anyway."
   On the sixth day with its ammunition exhausted, the sergeant's band was pinned down with its back to the Douve River. The Nazis brought up armored units and Sergeant Lavender surrendered. Then began a nightmare the sergeant will never forget. He was taken first to Rennes, France, where his leg was treated by French doctors who worked for the Germans.

   A few days later, he was herded into a boxcar with 27 other prisoners. There they spent the next 23 days on a daily diet of one-half a loaf of bread and "some margarine."
In Solitary Confinement
   The last day they didn't even get that. Fifteen prisoners in another car had escaped the night before and the Germans invoked a no-food order. "We were taken off the train at another prison camp in France," Sergeant Lavender said. "I'm not sure of the name. "I was put in solitary right away." he explained. "Nazis questioned me inthe morning and night. The Nazis I spoke with had been educated in America. "In the morning, they treated me nicely. They tried to get information from me by telling me l was a swell fellow. But at night, he said, "the treatment was brutal. They beat me with a rubber hose. "This kept up for 10 days," he said. "But all they got from me was my name, rank and serial number."   On the eleventh day, Sergeant Lavender was sent by boxcar to a camp in Germany and later to a camp in Poland. He remained in Poland until January, 1945
   His weight during his imprisonment in Poland dropped from 160 to 113.
Liberated by Russians
   "As the Russians kept driving closer, the Germans decided to pull us back," Sergeant Lavender said. "They marched us for four straight days after we left the camp. "They told, us they'd shoot anyone .who fell out sick. They did shoot some prisoners who tried to escape," he said, "but didn't touch those who were sick. "We got to Berlin on Feb. 2, 1945 the day that city had its worst raid of the war. We were locked in a boxcar and could hear hell break loose all around," the sergeant continued. "But no bombs hit any of the cars on our train."
   Sergeant Lavender was taken to a camp outside Berlin the next day and stayed there until liberated by the Russians in April. But his harrowing experiences weren't over yet. Apparently he didn't care for his Russian liberators. For one night, shortly after the Russians arrived, he broke through the prison camp wire and started for the American lines. He had to cross through German-held territory to get there, but he made it. He was awarded a battle star for this exploit.
   Sergeant Lavender was separated from the army in October and discharged last month. Now that he's back in the army, he has but one wish "to be stationed in Binghamton for the next 24 years and- nine days." Then he can retire with 30 years' service.
[Press and Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, NY, 10 Jan 1946, Thu, Main Edition, Page 3]