Editor's note: The Daily Register is profiling the following area resident in honor of Veterans Day.

It was two days before Christmas in 1943 when Raymond Lange was drafted.

He was 18. Given the choice of joining the Army or the Navy, Lange chose to join the Navy. Born in Columbus, the son of a World War I veteran, Lange was sent to boot camp before his high school graduation. His father picked up his diploma.

His training took him across the United States, from Oregon, where his ship was made, to San Diego, to Rhode Island for small arms training, and a stint in the Chesapeake Bay to get acquainted with the ship.

"Our ship did not draw a lot of water," Lange said of the small ship he served on as a gunner's mate. "I operated a 20 mm ship machine gun."

His ship, with 78 men on board, protected bigger ships and relied on them for supplies.

"We were like a parasite. We had to get all our ammo and food from bigger ships," Lange said.

His crewmates nicknamed him "Chick."

"It stuck with me," Lange said.

His first battle was at Iwo Jima. His ship went in ahead of the Marines to fire on the beach. He said they got within 1,500 yards of the shore.

"They shot some mortars at us, but they didn't hit us," Lange said.

He said that his ship was sent back to the beach (where the original landing was later that afternoon) to tow out wrecked landing crafts so supplies could be brought in. His ship hauled the crafts out to deep water and cut them loose.

After Iwo Jima, his ship was sent to Okinawa.

He saw a destroyer get hit by a suicide plane. His ship picked up survivors.

"It went down fast," Lange said. "They were covered in oil ... in shock."

When World War II ended, he was promoted to chief gunner's mate. His ship was sent to the China Sea to work with minesweepers. Mines were cut loose by the sweepers and his ship fired at them to set them off.

Lange spent 19 months on the ship. His last day in the Navy was May 9, 1946.

"I've seen a lot of islands in the Pacific," Lange said.

After his service, Lange went to work in Columbus. He joined the Air Force with a friend in 1952 because he "wanted to see more of the world."

Lange worked as a staff sergeant and communication center specialist in the Air Force, working with teletype and switchboards. He spent 30 months in Japan and was stationed at an Air Force base in Labrador during his career in the Air Force. His service ended in 1961.

Lange married in 1964 and adopted wife Betty's three children. Two followed him into the service. One joined the Air Force and another the Navy.