"THE HANDCART BOYS"
He's lying in the tree line, blood running down his arm.
Listening for the sound of the Handcart boys, to remove him from this harm.
He flew in on a modern jet that got shot down in this affray.
But he is no different than the wounded at Shiloh, trying to survive, till they safely take him away.
In the dark of the night she waits with so much pain to bear.
Injured in the crash of her aircraft and now this seemly endless nightmare.
Where is the chopper that will lift her from the smoke, the fire and the pain?
Where are the Handcart boys, hurry, her life is beginning to drain? He was wounded when a round slammed onto the "cruiser's" deck.
Shards of metal are protruding from the right side his neck.
The corpsman has stopped the bleeding; he's been prepared, to be extracted in the night.
The Handcart boys are racing his way, and will be there by first light.
Get in, get them out, and hurry back, to the safety of our lines.
It has been this way since ancient wars, to the battles of modern times.
The two-wheel Handcart is the way the wounded were removed from battles in past wars.
Our modern Handcart has a rotor-blade and sliding doors.
Look at history, look at art work, or at movies if you will.
When it came to removing the wounded off of some war torn desolate hill.
It was a Handcart carrying the broken and the dying with their screams of pain.
It was a Handcart transporting at Normandy in the cold June rain.
Every branch of the service has its modern version of the Handcart boys who respond to the call.
They go out for the wounded and dead, bring them back, get them all.
Some times the Handcart boys are brought back in a Handcart not of their own.
Some times they become the wounded & the dying, and for their efforts, they never come home.
There are also women who work these, latter-day Handcarts and their lives too, are on the line.
It is a dangerous mission, but just as their predecessors they to make that recovery in time.
They move out over the desert, into the night as the sand blows and swirls.
These Handcart operators are our Handcart girls.
I have a two-wheeled wooden handcart with an old worn flag sitting out on my front lawn.
It is not a protest, it's a reminder of our injured, who returned by Handcart, lying there upon.
In order to defend this Nation, we will continue to send the brave & young, our freedom they earn.
And we will always have a need for the Handcarts, for our wounded and dead, they must return.
Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret. 15 March 2003
Vanharl@aol.com
Special Operations Wing – SOW
Pigs are important in special-ops.
One is always on guard duty at Rescue Rock.
 | ||||||
"Fighting for Our Veterans-Supporting Our Troops"
Proudly Serving All Branches & All Eras Since 1999
When You Need A Service or Product, Please Remember Your Supporters!
Majpr Van Harl, (USAF)Ret
Bio Here
Not So Great State Fair
“Our State fair is a great state fair-don’t miss it, don’t even be late” as the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the musical, State Fair, goes. I used to be able to sing the entire song. You see, I am from Iowa originally and the 1945 and 1962 movie version of State Fair takes place in Iowa. Remember Pat Boone driving his sports car down the country roads of Iowa singing? There was even an earlier 1933 version of State Fair, so the wholesome good fun of going to a wonderful event has been played out for 78 years on the silver screen.
The Colonel is from Wisconsin, Milwaukee County for that matter, home of the Wisconsin State Fair. When my father the Navy Master Chief was stationed in northern Illinois I would drive across the state line to attend the Wisconsin State Fair. I have not been to the Wisconsin State Fair since I was in college, but now we live only minutes away from the fair grounds and I, for one, did not attend this year. Milwaukee has had a very turbulent summer; actually violent is more the correct term. On the 3rd of July there was a holiday fireworks display down on the lake front. Tens of thousands of people were at the lake that night, there to have a good time. A flash mob of urban youth, as the liberal Milwaukee press described it two days later, attacked in what was an orchestrated, cell phone-twitter directed and controlled, large scale act of street violence. Forty, to one hundred urban youth (read young black males and females) attacked an extended family of twenty people just out enjoying the fireworks. Hitting people in the head (for maximum damage) and stealing electronics were the primary actions of the urban youth. Apparently laughing at the injured and wounded as they lay on the ground asking for the violence to stop and please get help.
When the 2011 Wisconsin State Fair opened the “urban youth” were there again. First it was urban youth on urban youth violence inside the fair grounds all day. The State Fair has its own police force. They had had enough and at closing time they moved the crowds quickly out the gates and unfortunately into the waiting arms of more urban youth looking to inflict harm. The public was injured and a half a dozen cops were hurt. One officer was struck in the head and knocked out. He was lucky an urban youth did not take his duty weapon and turn it on the officer. The mayor of Milwaukee was attacked at the State Fair in 2009 by angry urban youth.
Since I write a military related column I was going to stay out of this one. When white people talk about race everyone gets uncomfortable, then I started listening to black talk radio here in Milwaukee. Lots of call-ins saying yes the urban youths who committed the violence were wrong, but. Lots of buts and excuses for bad behavior, then a caller blamed it on the Army. According to the caller young black men demonstrated bad behavior because they were being made to go into the Army and then killed in disproportionate numbers in our desert wars. In reality, what young black adults have figured out is the US military is the most level playing field in this country that you can work in. A 20 year old soldier with his wife and new baby can move into Army post housing and become middle class instantly, white or black.
He gets to live in what we joking refer to military housing as, a gated community. A well run community that has rules and standards that make his new home safe, clean, and an all round nice place for a young Soldier or Airman to move his family into. There is no draft and nobody is forced into the military. Blacks in this country are 12-13 % of the population but in some Army career fields they make up 20-25% of the professional men and women working in that field.
I don’t think they were forced to be there. Urban youths, attacking people at the state fair was an example of bad behavior, escalating into violent behavior. Young black men and women volunteer to defend their country and in the process make a better life for their families. Their service benefits the nation and the individual.
