“All over the planet.”
That’s where Dr. Robert Langsten said the U.S. Air Force sent him after the Tigerton native enlisted as a college student at the University of Minnesota in the 1980s.
Nearly 40 years later, he’s back in Tigerton and is currently the commander of American Legion Post 239.
Langsten, 60, served in the military for 26 1/2 years before retiring in July 2016 as a U.S. Air Force Dental Corps officer and advanced general dentist.
“I enlisted in November 1986,” he said. “My father was drafted, and we had another (family member) serve. I was interested, and they offered residency and training programs.
“I was a commander for 12 years. I started off as a dentist, and then I did a bunch of surgical fellowships. I started at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, and went to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral (Florida). Then I went to Guam and on multiple humanitarian missions. From there, I went to Howard Air Force Base in Panama. From there, I went to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.”
Langsten was later deployed to Iraq twice.
“I flew critically injured patients and worked on them,” he said.
Langsten grew up in Tigerton before his family moved to the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis.
“My father got a job as a diesel mechanic in Milwaukee, so we moved from Tigerton to West Allis where I went to middle school and high school,” he said.
Langsten eventually moved back to his original hometown.
“We have a family farm there,” he said. “My mother resides on the farm, and I wanted to come back home.”
He has served as Post 239’s commander since May.
“I was there for five years, and they were kind of looking at me,” Langsten said. “The outgoing commander had been there awhile, and there was an older gentleman who’s been there for 50 years, and he said, ‘We want you to be the commander.’
“I wanted to give back, and I wanted to make sure I was the right fit. I really feel that it’s important to give back. The military utilized me for my skills, but they also provided me with a lot of valuable skills that I would have never had. I felt like I needed to give back to the community.”
Post 239 representatives will be on hand for a POW/MIA ceremony on Veterans Day at Tigerton High School.
“A lot,” Langsten said when asked what Veterans Day means to him. “It’s a way of the community thanking me for my service. It’s a way of me giving back to the community. It should be something that everybody appreciates. Sometimes, I don’t think the American public realizes what some of those people went through.”
American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War posts and their auxiliaries are essential to small communities like Tigerton, according to Langsten.
“They’re a sign of community pride,” he said. “We have a lot of people who have served in the Tigerton area. Not all of them were career (veterans), but they were drafted. Our post has a lot of Vietnam veterans who went through some pretty hellacious stuff. It’s a nice way for them to get together. We also give back. We do the Memorial Day address. We do Veterans Day at the school. We do Fourth of July activities.
“It’s a good way for them to put on their uniform and talk about their experience with the military,” he continued. “If nothing else, it’s community activity. It’s camaraderie. It’s friendship. It’s, ‘Hey, we appreciate what you did.’”
