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Waiting for Wop May |
On January 2, 1929, fliers Wop May and Vic Horner took
off in an open-cockpit biplane to bring an anti-toxin to the remote communities of Little Red River and Fort Vermilion, which were stricken with an outbreak of diphtheria. The media rallied a crowd of ten thousand Edmontonians at Blatchford Field to greet them on their return January 6.
In thousands we gathered in the light and the dark,
shivering to speed the heroes' return.
No one knew, in nineteen twenty-nine,
how long it took to fly
five hundred miles and back;
whether two airmen with open cockpit
could last that long at thirty-three below;
whether low-grade fuel taken on at stops
would gel or burn; nor even
whether a mission to bring
to a stricken village a cure for diphtheria
could be done in time.
But we stood there in the cold to wait
because there had to be an arm
to the bold, intrepid hand
that was these men. | LISTEN to this poem:
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© D.D. Elves |
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