"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.
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Majpr Van Harl, (USAF)Ret
Bio Here
Sisters and the Band of Brothers
“Sergeant McClung, if the Army wanted you to have a wife they would have issued you one.” This was the typical statement given to a WW II GI when he approached his First Sergeant in reference to getting married while on active duty. Staff Sergeant Earl McClung, late of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles, had fallen in love with a fellow GI. He was later to become famous from the HBO series The Band of Brothers.
He was in love with a WAAF (Women’s Army Air Force) a female soldier to be exact. Jean Williams was living in Oregon working in the defense industry. She wanted to join the Army like her big sister Mary Williams had, but the Army required women to be 20 years old to enlist. Mary Williams had left her school teaching job of five years, only weeks after Pearl Harbor. After convincing her mother to take over the classroom, Mary headed to Iowa to enlist in the WAC (Women’s Army Corps). Mary drove trucks and ambulances during the first part of her enlistment, but she was a school teacher, a good public speaker and the Army needed women recruiters desperately, to seek out and enlist women into the service.
If you watch old WWII movies you might think everyone wanted to enlist- not so- and not so even more for women. Mary would get a referral from a male GI who alleged he knew of a woman who might want to enlist. She would take her Jeep and drive up into the mountains of West Virginia looking for a potential female recruit, only to find a 90 year old woman sitting on her porch. Big joke on the WAC recruiter, but the Army needed women soldiers.
Jean wanted to join the Marines, but big sister Mary convinced her to come to West Virginia, and enlist in the Army. Of course, Mary, the Army recruiter, got credit for enlisting her little sister. By the time Jean entered the Army all four of the Williams siblings were in the military. Mary met her GI husband Donald F. Speaks in Louisville, Kentucky. He was an Army combat medic who had been wounded in the Pacific and sent to Nichols US Army General Hospital to recover. Mary wrote to Jean, now stationed in South Carolina, that her future husband was extremely good looking. While visiting Mary’s home I was handed pictures of Mary and her husband in uniform and both could have been on an Army recruiting poster.
Earl McClung returned home from Europe and proceeded to get into trouble. The judge allowed him to reenlist in the Army and Earl headed to South Carolina to teach airborne skills to new Army troops. Jean Williams was working in the Special Services at the base radio station and the library. She met the wild paratrooper at the enlisted men’s club on base. After 17 months in the WAAF, Jean separated from the Army and married Earl McClung. T-5 / Sergeant; Mary Williams separated from the Army in 1946 and married her combat medic. After a couple of years in Ohio, she and Don moved to Colorado. Jean and Earl made their post-WWII life in Oregon. Eventually after Earl retired, they also moved to Colorado. The two veteran sisters live next door to each other in West Pueblo, Colorado.
After the HBO Band of Brothers series came out, Earl was in demand to travel to promote the series and speak about the Army, Easy Company, and WWII combat. Jean travels with Earl to many of the events. Most people who attend these functions don’t even know that Jean McClung is a WWII Army veteran. Mary, due to health issues, tends to stay close to home. Her daughter, Temara Speaks, an Air Force veteran, is close by to help. I spent a morning in Mary’s home speaking to her, Jean and Temara, taking copious notes about these two women’s Army veteran experiences. Mary and Jean both have children who served in the military. We talked about trying to convince new generations to join the military and serve their country. Both Jean and Mary, and her daughter Temara, used the GI bill to continue their education. Something, they would not have had without this VA benefit they earned for serving their country. Yes, the Band of Brothers fought in WWII to defend and protect America, but there were thousands of “sisters of the band” who also served to protect our nation. Thank you lady veterans for your service!
