He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast
As he sat around the Legion telling stories of the past.
Of a war he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies, they were heroes - every one.
And sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
But all his buddies listened, for they knew of which he spoke.
We'll hear his tales no longer, for our friends has passed away,
and the world's a little poorer, for a soldier was buried today.
He won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life.
He held a job and raised his family, quietly going on his way,
And the world won't note his passing: `tho a soldier was buried today.
When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Newspapers tell of their life stories from the time that they were young,
But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land,
Some jerk who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary guy, who in times of war or strife,
Signs up to serve his country and offers up his life?
The politician's stipend and the style in which he lives,
Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal, and perhaps a pension small.
It's so easy to forget them, for it was so long ago,
That those guys did something special, but nevertheless we know.
It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
Who've earned for us the freedom that this country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger with your enemies at hand,
Would you really want some cop-out with his ever-waffling stand?
Or would you want a real soldier who swore he would defend,
His home, his state, his country, and would fight until the end?
He was just a common soldier and those ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us, we'll need his likes again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part,
Is to clean up all the troubles that politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage at the end of his days.
Perhaps a simple headline in the paper that might say:
"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING - FOR A SOLDIER WAS BURIED TODAY."
- Author Unknown - If you know the autor please let me know. Thank You
More poems...
An Old Soldier's Boots
Where DoesThe Buck Stop?
Without Ceremony
Just a Simple Soldier
Missing man table and
honors ceremony
Throwaway Soldiers
The Veteran
The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular war in which Americans ever fought. Over 58,000 American soldiers died as a result of the Vietnam War and hundreds of their remains and their return to the United States remains an unsettled issue to this day. The toll in suffering, sorrow, in rancorous national turmoil can never be tabulated. And for many of the more than two million American veterans of the war, the wounds of Vietnam will never heal No one wants ever to see America so divided again. A few soldiers who died in Vietnam aren't allowed a grave marker with Vietnam engraved on it or weren't allowed to have their names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall because of some erroneous technical decision on dates of service. This betrays the honorable contributions and sacrifices of those servicemen and their families. The financial cost to the United States comes to something over $150 billion dollars.
On March 15, 1965, large shipments of troops arrived in South Vietnam. These troops occupied the country until 1973. During this time, many men fought and died for the United States of America. The numerous nurses that operated on thousands of soldiers are often forgotten. The United States did not acknowledge the nurses that served in the Vietnam War until 1993. The nurses that served in the Vietnam War, although commonly unrecognized, served as bravely as their soldier counterparts, and some suffered much of the same mental and physical distress. The nurses were not considered actual army personal. It would remain that way for the next nineteen years after the war. The women who served went unnoticed until November of 1993. Diane Evans fought for many years to obtain a Memorial for women who served in Viet-Nam . Finally, after a hard fought battle, a monument was created for the nursed that were in Vietnam. Those women endured mental and emotional anguish and many of them like their brothers in arms suffered massive flashbacks, depression and a feeling of not belonging. The women who went to Vietnam grew up fast and their lives were changed forever. They all suffered much pain emotionally and physically. The nurses were given little credit for their participation during the Vietnam war, but at last they will live forever in the Women’s Vietnam War Memorial.
Some gave it all. Some others made momentous sacrifices; they were imprisoned by the enemy. Their imprisonment included beatings and torture, starvation, and all forms of emotional and psychological abuse. It also entailed the terrible loneliness of living through lost years, of seeing the days tick away without friends, without loved ones, without family and community. Three things that helped them survive captivity and return with honor: faith in God, faith in their fellow prisoners, and faith in their country. They would not be abandoned, that their government would move mountains to return them to us after the war. Places like Camp 5 and the Hanoi Hilton are gone now, but the silence left in their place surely echoes with the quiet, unheard valor of those who suffered there and clung to the belief that their government wouldn’t abandon them. They never give up….. Our government did…..
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