The Catskill Chronicle

Story Ted Waddell – Photos provided by Steve Lungen

Lungen up by the DMZ with an M16 and a command radio at the ready. – From the wartime collection of Steve Lungen.

ROCK HILL – Sullivan County DA Stephen F. Lungen was never one to wrap himself in the proud colors of the American Flag when it came time to being elected as the county’s lead prosecutor starting in 1982 and right up until the time he decided to hang it up in 2009 after 28 years as DA.

But, in an exit interview with The Catskill Chronicle, followed in short order drill by a keynote speech to the graduates of the Sullivan County Drug Treatment Court on December 1, ’09, he talked about how his experiences during the heat of the Vietnam War shaped his character, focused a desire to complete law school and later helped him mold his assistant district attorneys (ADA’s) into razor-edged weapons for the prosecution in the courtroom.

Bell UH1 helicopters, known as Hueys, were used in the Vietnam War.

In addressing the drug court grads, Lungen said “each generation faces forces that are beyond our control” citing his folks confronting the Great Depression, WWII and the Korean War.

Lungen, a college student whose guidance counselor at Fallsburg High School advised him to forget about college, was nearing graduation from college in 1967; the same year the family business started to fold. Along with thousands of other young men in the nation, Lungen found himself looking down the barrel of reality when draft boards began reaching out into their ranks as the conflict in Southeast Asia gained momentum.

Taking advantage of a one-year reprieve from the draft board for students entering graduate school, the county’s future DA completed his first year at Brooklyn Law School in June 1968, got married on June 16, and when he and his wife Eileen returned from their honeymoon, found a draft notice waiting for him.

Enlisting in Officer Candidates School (OCS) gained him another semester in law school, but on January 13, 1969 Lungen went into military service, and was on active duty in the U.S. Army for two years and eight months as a commissioned infantry lieutenant.

While serving in Vietnam, Lungen used to send messages home to his wife and young son in pictures instead of letters.

When he packed his bags for Southeast Asia, Lungen left behind a wife and their five-week old son, and as a 25-year old infantry officer found himself leading 140 men into battle instead of changing diapers and watching over the home fires.

“Those experiences that I had in Vietnam, the things that I witnessed, that I did, have affected every facet of my life to date,” he said during the drug court graduation ceremony.

“Adversity makes you stronger and you learn to build on it; use it to your advantage. I know what it is like to have fought in a war, where the people who protested the war not only blamed the government, but blamed the soldier as well,” continued Lungen. “When I came home from Vietnam, people accused us of being druggies and baby killers and war mongers. It took years to heal those wounds. Today we honor our service people even if we believe the government was wrong, we do not blame the soldier.”

To this day, after the passage of 30-some years, there are combat experiences that as a lieutenant serving with the First of the 11th Infantry, Fifth Infantry Division stationed up on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), an area of operations that stretched from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Laotian border, that Lungen still doesn’t talk about, even to his kids.

A forward base on a hilltop overlooking hostile territory by the DMZ.

Lungen said he came away from those fields of fire as an officer with a helicopter assault unit, with a few principals he later carried over to the local DA’s office, and along the way passed over to his successor, newly elected DA James R. Farrell: “as a combat commander, you’re the first one in and the last one out, you always take care of the people in your command, you never ask anyone to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself, and you lead by example.”

“When I became DA, I ran the office the same way,” reflected Lungen. “I’m the first one here, and I’m the last one to leave, [and] over the years I’ve tried some of the hardest cases to come through this office.”

“And when the ADA’s see that I do that, it inspires them not to be afraid of cases…if the boss is willing to put it all on the line as an elected official, why shouldn’t I?”

Lt. Steve Lungen in front of Army armor used in support of ground troops.

During his service in Vietnam, Lungen was awarded two Bronze Stars for Valor, a Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and an Air Medal for multiple helicopter assaults under enemy fire. In the courtroom, Lungen planned prosecutions much like a military engagement: think strategically and maintain the ability to be flexible.

In 2003, Lungen presented the people’s case against Hal Karen, a former special forces Airborne Ranger, who was tried and convicted by a jury of murdering his wife, stuffing her into a garbage can and tossing her remains over an embankment.

In a case that was dubbed by the media “The Garbage Can Murder”, Lungen presented evidence to the jury that linked a piece of parachute cord to the former special forces soldier.

“It was a great circumstantial evidence case,” he recalled. “When I saw the rope, I knew it was from a parachute, and when I had his background, I knew we had him…it was just a matter of putting the pieces together.”

“We traced the parachute cord wrapped around the garbage can and Tammy Karen’s body to a lot number back at Fort Lewis, Washington where he was stationed…it was a case that left a family and a sister devastated.”

“It was a chance to make it right for Tammy [and convict] a guy who dumped his wife over a cliff like garbage.”

“If I am anything, I am a person who strongly defends victim’s rights,” said Lungen. “I view myself as privileged to speak for victims, and represent them in the courtroom.”

So a few years ago in Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda’s courtroom, a highly decorated Vietnam War vet had a chance to speak for the dead, as he helped convict a former soldier of killing his wife in cold blood and dumping her in the woods, a victim whose skeletal remains silently screamed for justice.

*All photos are from the wartime collection of Steve Lungen.

* Coming soon – further reflections on Steven F. Lungen’s career as DA

To view photos from Reflections of a Vietnam War Vet – Provided by Steve Lungen visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.