Nows and Forevers

I was looking through some filings with the Pennsylvania Legislature yesterday when I came upon a resolution that took me back.

It was a request for cosponsors for a resolution to rename a bridge on Syberton Road in Gallitzin Township, Pennsylvania, for Private Martin J. Hanlon.

Hanlon was a 1968 graduate of Cresson High School in Cambria County and joined the Marines, eventually ending up in South Vietnam. On Dec. 27, 1970, Private Hanlon was in a truck in Quang Nam, that hit a landline and he was killed.

Hanlon was 21 years old.

According to one of the many posts on the vvmf.org about Private Hanlon, he wasn’t even supposed to be working that day and he had volunteered to be on that convoy.

“Marty chose to ride that day, the rest is history,” wrote one friend in 2017.

I don’t know much else about Private Hanlon or the request, filed by Pennsylvania State Rep. Jim Rigby, to rename the bridge in Private Hanlon’s honor. Private Hanlon, according to the resolution, received the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon and other medals for his service.

And he’s memorialized on Panel 5, Line 11, on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I drive by a fair amount of these memorials, to service members and fallen police officers, and always try to remember who they are so that I can look them up later and honor their sacrifices. It’s a lot easier now than it’s ever been. When I was growing up, in the pre-Internet days, it was almost impossible. But I tried to do that even then, ever since I realized my family had connections to some of those memorials. Both my grandfather, a World War II veteran, and my father, whose friends were drafted to serve in Vietnam, had connections to some of the people honored in their hometowns.

I don’t know the backstory, but I’m glad that Rep. Rigby is remembering a young man who made the ultimate sacrifice so long ago. I know what it’s like to try to keep the memory of a lost loved one alive. It’s hard, even when that person has lived for decades. Private Hanlon never got that chance, and the older I get, the more I realize how tragic that is. Hanlon would be 73 this month, had he lived.