Restless native: He's got the right kind of language

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”

― Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon

Send in the cavalry, if it is not too late

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

As I am prone to do, today I think of times past from my newspaper days and of Oscar Lindholm, and his conservative ways. It has been years since Oscar's death, but still I have an overwhelming desire to recycle some of his blacksmith/ferrier wisdom from time to time.

For example: "The stable cleaning was seven days a week. In fact you got so 'stabilized' that when I went on leave the first time, I couldn't get used to not cleaning a stable every morning," wrote in his 1984 book "Horseman's Territory."

Oscar, born on April 12, 1916 in Holmquist, South Dakota, passed away at the age of 93, on February 7, 2010. Having joined the US Army in 1936, he was awarded the Bronze Star and retired as a CW03 in 1957. While in the Army, Oscar married his wife Elsie Alexander in October of 1940, and they had four wonderful children. He spent many years perfecting the craft of "horse shoeing" in which he became very well known as the area's "Horse Shoer."

He is buried in Woodland Park Cemetery.

"Oh, we all griped in the horse cavalry just like any other outfits, but the old saying I believe is true. 'If they ain't griping, they ain't happy.' Another saying I remember: 'Everything is funny, as long as it happens to someone else.'"

It has been a long time since the U.S. horse cavalry of Oscar's day existed, which makes his wonderful stories so precious.

The last horse cavalry charge by a U.S. Army cavalry unit took place against Japanese forces during the fighting in the Bataan Peninsula, Philippines, in the village of Morong on 16 January 1942, by the 26th Cavalry Regiment of the Philippine Scouts. Shortly thereafter, the besieged combined United States-Philippine forces were forced to slaughter their horses for food and the 26th Regiment fought on foot or in whatever scarce vehicles were available until their surrender.
The 10th Mountain Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop of the 10th Mountain Division, with its roots in Colorado, while not designated as U.S. Cavalry, conducted the last horse-mounted charge of any Army organization while engaged in Austria in 1945. An impromptu pistol charge by the Third Platoon was carried out when the Troop encountered a machine gun nest in an Italian village/town sometime between April 14, and April 23, 1945.

"Actually I served with Machine Gun Troop of the 4th Cavalry Regiment in Ft. Meade, South Dakota, from February 1936 till the spring of 1940 when half of the regiment mechanized. A & B Troops retained their horses till approximately May or June, 1942. In the spring of 1940 when the unit half mechanized, Machine Gun Troop became Service Troop of the mechanized part of the regiment," wrote Oscar.

"I think I saw three generals while in army from1936 to 1942. One of these, I believe was Chief of Cavalry in approximately 1936. Whoever he was, he came to Ft. Meade, South Dakota, on an inspection tour. After the general and his inspection team had walked through the stables, the general said to our sergeant, 'You maybe won't believe this, Sergeant, but I have seen mess halls that were cleaner than that stables.' That is the kind of good stuff we lived on for days back then."

“When you first start, the more you hammer, the worse it gets.” According to what Oscar told me years ago about his initial solo horse shoeing at Fort Mead, South Dakota for the Fourth Calvary in 1936. “I was sweating and swearing pretty good in both Swede and English,” he said and as Sergeant Sears, his superior at the time noted, “I guess he’ll make a pretty good blacksmith, he's got the language right already.”