Veteran’s Day 2010

I'm not sure when I wrote this poem. I believe it was sometime before I was married (1974). It was published in the Wayne County Press-Sentinel (Jesup, GA), so the date could be verified if someone wanted to take the trouble.

It was written at a time when it seemed that our nation had turned its back on patriotism – when the veterans of the war in Vietnam were treated with so much disrespect by the press and the culture in general. I did not go to war, but that did not make me less the patriot and it did not diminish my respect for those who did go and for those who died or suffered wounds, both physical and psychological.

Now, about 40 years later, I have two sons who are veterans, having served in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Both experienced combat and had their vehicles blown up while they were riding in them, yet both came home with no physical harm.

Just knowing that they were in harm's way makes November 11 mean so much more now, because it's personal. The poem was written during a time of patriotic passion in a young man. It now is simply the memorial from a maturing father to those who served, including those of my own blood.

     Veterans' Parade

With flags unfurled and sound of drum

Down dusty streets the heroes come

Their uniforms of faded hue

Some olive drab and some of blue

From store fronts streams of bunting sway

To mark this celebration day

A day so nobly set aside

To demonstrate a nation's pride

In those who entered in the strife

Some prematurely snatched from life

And those who lived to carry home

The scars of battle the victor's song

What is it we are prone to ask

That makes a man take up the task

Of war – to live with death and pain

Through jungle swamp and desert plain

To sacrifice the fruits of toil

To taste the grit of foreign soil

To suffer death and injury

At the hands of a faceless enemy

An easy answer may ne'er be found

The arguments go round and round

Some say envy lust and greed

Coveting things we do not need

But the evidence it seems to me

Points to love of liberty

At least in these United States

It's love of freedom that motivates

Now hear the band play "Fife and Drum"

As down the street these heroes come

With springing step as if to say

I'm proud to have served the USA.