Herbert Hansen was born on a farm in rural Iowa. He had planned on being a farmer but was convinced to go to college and received a scholarship to Iowa State University. While there, he was required to only join the ROTC in his 1st and 2nd year, but continued through college. When he graduated in 1952, it was during the time of the Korean War and he was commissioned in the army artillery as a Second Lieutenant and called to active duty. After his basic training, in 1953, he was sent overseas to Korea. He was assigned as a forward observer who looks out for the enemy and calls for artillery fire if necessary. Twenty one days after his assignment, a truce was called, and he shortly returned to US and retired from the military. He became an insurance field adjuster in Florida and Georgia but encountered racial prejudices which he says he never experienced while in the military. He left for Minnesota in 1954 as an agriculture teacher, then to Iowa where he obtained his Masters and PHD to become a professor in agricultural engineering at Iowa State, then at Oregon State, until he retired in 1992.