Wounded soldier left stranded finds people do still care

January 16, 2011
Wounded Army soldier finds help in McAlester
By James Beaty
Senior Editor

McALESTER — It’s a need McAlester couldn’t let go by unanswered — a man identified as a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq, stranded in the city, broke and hundreds of miles from home.

On Thursday, Kristophier Barta wound up on foot in McAlester. He said his bus ticket between Veterans Administration hospitals had been extended several times and would no longer get him home to Lexington, Ken.

Barta, who said he had been wounded as a member of the U.S. Army in Iraq, still had a port tube in his chest to help drain the wound.

In McAlester, Barta didn’t know what to do. A helpful employee at the service station where he had been stranded noticed his plight.

She offered him some coffee —and something that proved to be much more.

Barta, who said he’s of Cherokee Indian ancestry, said he’d been hoping to visit a foster sister who lived in Tahlequah.

He said he asked how far it was to the Cherokee reservation, actually meaning the Cherokee Capitol grounds in Tahlequah.
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Wounded Army soldier finds help in McAlester