Service in Uniform: Glen Haley

Seymour’s Glen Haley never met a challenge he backed away from, and he never met a person he was unwilling to help. He served many people — including his nation — while in uniform for many of his 85 years.

That’s why the Jackson County native recently was named the recipient of this year’s Spirit of Freedom in Uniform award winner. The award is given by The Tribune.

“They told me what to do, and I did it,” the 85-year-old Haley said.

The challenges began early for Haley, who grew up during the depression in Brownstown. He lived with his father, a blacksmith, his mother and brothers and sisters, in an area then known as Dogtown. Dogtown was located in the southern part Brownstown, and Haley said he stills remembers what they used to say about the neighborhood.

“They never hurt no dogs in Dogtown,” he said.

Haley and many of the other boys in town would spend their free time trying to pick up a penny or two by doing chores for people.

But when he wasn’t trying to pick up some money, Haley would help others in need for free, his daughter, Cathy Thorton, said.

“He told us when he was a little kid, he would run errands for all the little old ladies in Brownstown,” she said.

During the 1930s, Haley worked for the Civilian Conservation Corp. at Henryville. That New Deal organization constructed shelterhouses, cleared hiking trails and completed other projects at state-owned properties around the state.

Although he wasn’t a cook, Haley said his mother had shown him how to make apple pies so he often made them for the other men in his camp.

“They just liked them,” Haley said.

One year after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Haley decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. On Dec. 14, 1942, he put on a uniform and went off to war. All four of his brothers also served in the military during the war.

“I stayed until they told me I could go home,” Haley said of his war service.

During the war, Haley served as a jumpmaster (making sure everyone else jumped) with the famed 101st Airborne. He also was a military policeman.

Jumping from a perfectly good airplane was something Haley said he had no fear of doing.

“I wasn’t afraid of it,” he said.

Haley parachuted about 30 miles inland from the beaches of Normandy shortly before H-Hour on the morning of June 6, 1944. He would spend the rest of the war fighting his way across northern France into Germany. On the way, his unit was involved in the Battle of the Bulge. Haley wound up at Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat, Berchtesgaden, in the Bavarian Alps.

“I wasn’t afraid of Hitler,” Haley said.

“That’s because he wasn’t there anymore,” Haley’s daughter said laughingly.

After the war, Haley returned to Seymour and later joined the police department. Two years later in 1950, however, he left the police department to join the fire department, where he would serve for the next 22 years. He was fire chief from 1964 to 1971.

Haley also owned his own business, putting up and taking down television antennas, his son Tom Haley said.

“He never quit working,” Tom Haley said.

Thorton agreed.

“We don’t remember seeing him a whole lot,” Thorton said of herself, her brother and two other sisters.

“We went to the old fire department to see him,” she added.

Her father also never quit helping others.

He spent more than 50 years as part of the burial detail — again in uniform — with the local veterans organizations in the county.

“I think he was taught at an early age to help people,” Thornton said. “He used to tell us, ‘Kids just don’t know old people anymore, we used to help old people.’”

Thornton said she thinks her father decided to become involved with the burial detail because he felt it was his duty.

“I think he felt he was one of the lucky ones who got to come home,” Thornton said.

Tom Haley said he also remembers helping his dad take clothing to the Veterans Home in Lafayette.

And Glen Haley also played the role of Santa Claus for many years in the community in yet another uniform.

“He was still getting calls to do it when he was in his 70s, but he just couldn’t hold the kids on his knees anymore,” Tom Haley said of his father.

“He always tried to do his best to help the community,” Thorton said.