Gene Carr
Gene Carr
WWII Veteran Who Fought in the Battle of the Bulge
I would use the word "respect". We all have the right to different opinions, but must handle each other with respect. There are a lot of good people out there. We’re no better.
Gene Carr
WWII Veteran Who Fought in the Battle of the Bulge
I grew up in a little town in Kansas with 10,000 people. Smaller than this suburb. Had no TV. No color movies. No computers. No microwaves. No ready to fix meals. They were rugged times. In the middle of a terrible era. We had the Great Depression and there was the Dust Bowl. There were no airlines and no super markets. I remember my father calling me outside and he’d say, “Look. There’s an airplane.” I was astonished to see an airplane fly over.
When I was finishing 12th grade, it was apparent I was going into school during WWII. Hitler was marching across Europe. There was no question that most of the graduating class in 1942 was headed into war. Pearl Harbor happened and there were many killed and we had to go off to war.
I was in the war in August in 1943 and wounded in April of 1945. We were in the Battle of the Bulge. I was part of that. It was a terrible time. It was terribly cold; snowing and no proper clothing. I remember one terrible night tramping through woods and stream with water up to our knees.
We got on the other side and there weren’t many of us. Suffered some casualties. The Captain said "We are surrounded and we have no relief and we’re not going to surrender and this is it". The Battle of the Bulge went across the Rhine River and into Germany and finally to the event. I was badly injured by mortar fire. You either got killed or badly wounded. So I was just thrilled to be alive!
The part I would like to emphasize is the ghastliness of war. It is a terrible thing. Not like the movies where people fall down and get up. If we can do anything we should stop another war. The world can’t keep going on with wars and killing one another. I’ve been there and there is nothing worse than a war.
We’re Moving Out Now!
Honoring Gene Carr
We’re Moving Out Now!
Inducted in the Army in 1943
When I went to war I was only nineteen
Young enough to live, old enough to die
Number 37-538-419
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
March until you dropped, crawl on your belly
Under live machine gunfire sizzling
Don’t lift up your head or you might get killed
From the rifle range to the bayonet drills
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
“No surrender! No retreat! Defeat Germany!”
So said General Patton of the third Army
Man to man
Squad to squad
Platoon to platoon
Through the Battle of the Bulge we began to move
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
To clean up paratroopers who dropped behind the lines
A thousand yard stare when the bullets fly
Through a tiny slit in the armored shield
To fire back or else be killed
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
Straight into Belgium, a crucial crossroad
Into a gloomy forest covered with snow
Where one hundred thousand Nazi enemy
Five hundred armored vehicles coming at me
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
With no galoshes wading through the ice
From the hills far away I heard Silent Night
But we were mistaken
Then I heard a scream
“I’m wounded. I’m hurt bad. God help me!”
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
Fearful that the cries were some kind of trap
That became weaker as the night passed
Out-gunned, out-flanked, a full-fledged retreat
Ended when their high-water mark had been reached
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
It was Christmas Eve, so cold the weather dipped
The water in my canteen frozen on my hip
Hid behind a house, then heard a POP
The second Lieutenant, platoon leader had been shot
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
Crossed the Rhine River at the bridgehead
So much devastation, so many dead
Four months of war, showered in a tent
Where my uniform peeled off in strips
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
Holding field glasses, heard the Captain say,
“Okay men. . .we pay our own way.”
At that instant from a deadly 88
Millimeter shell the Captain met his fate
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
Then from a mortar shell like a bat against my shins
Knocked me to the ground could not get up again
Body filled with shrapnel, a million dollar wound
With ‘Victory in Europe, I knew I’d be home soon
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
War is total darkness. absence of light
We didn’t have a choice, simply had to fight
Fall down, get up, then fight some more
If I could do one thing I would put an end to war
We’re moving out now!
We’re the soldiers of the
United States Army!
Words and music by LARRY LONG with Mr. Ikola’s and Ms. Robinson’s 6th grade class of Cedar Manor Intermediate Center (St. Louis Park, Minnesota)
© Larry Long 2008 / BMI