Stories from the Wall: Gene Lane

Gene Lane grew up in Cairo, Illinois. It was a twist of fate that brought him to the military; in an effort to impress a congressman, Lane told him he wanted to attend West Point. The congressman made a few phone calls, and to West Point he went.

From that point on, the military was his life. 

Gene’s son, local resident Ned Lane, has memorialized his father by purchasing a brick in the Snellville Veteran’s Memorial. 

Ned recalled a three-month period of time during the Vietnam war when his father was completely out of touch. 

“The guerillas were showing up from everywhere,” he explained, “but we didn’t know what was going on.”

Without modern technology like cell phones or email, they had no way of finding out if Gene was alive, injured or worse. 

“The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been horrible,” he said, “but it’s different now with cell phones and stuff.” 

The only communication families had during the Vietnam War, which lasted for eight years, was letter writing, and those didn’t typically show up until three weeks after being mailed. 

Although Gene didn’t share much about his time in the war with Ned, he did share one story that always stuck with him. He was up in a one-engine plane, flying above Vietnam, when he looked down and saw an American POW on the back of a water buffalo. A Viet Cong soldier was leading him. Gene began to shoot in an attempt to save the POW, with no idea what he was going to hit. 

“It struck me that that is what war is all about,” said Ned. "I am so lucky, because I am of an age where there were no wars for me to fight. Too young for Vietnam, too old for Iraq."

Snellville Patch asked if he saved the guy. 

“He never told me the end result,” he replied. 

Ned’s mother was originally from Cold Spring, New York. The Atlanta area seemed a decent enough “in-between” place to settle, and so they moved here in 1973. In 1998 they moved to the Centerville side of town. 

Gene passed away in 2006. 

"The sacrifices of my dad, and all the other veterans, won for me a totally peaceful existence," said Ned. "One of the sacrifices my Dad made was never having a hometown for his children, because the Army transferred personnel constantly. The brick is a memorial in Snellville, the hometown he made possible for my children and I to have."

For more information on the Snellville Veterans Memorial, visit their website or Facebook page. 

If you would like to share your story through this column, contact Crystal.Huskey@patch.com. 

About this column: Stories of veterans and current service men and women who have a tile or brick on the Snellville Veterans Memorial.