A Christmas Wish for Our Men and Women in Uniform

As we bask in the glow of the holidays and busy ourselves with making preparations to spend time with family and friends, please take a moment to remember our men and women in uniform who will spend the holidays far from home, in both friendly and inhospitable places, paying with their sacrifice for the freedom we enjoy at home and the opportunity to enjoy our holidays in peace. Whatever your religion, please keep our troops in your prayers and if you are not a religious person, please keep them in your thoughts. Christmas and all high holy days whatever one's religion are particularly difficult for those who serve far from home, and no less difficult for their families. Let us honor their mutual sacrifice by contributing to worthwhile charitable organizations that bring them comfort and assistance--think of it as one more gift for the holidays for friends and family.

We can debate the wisdom and politics that underlie having our armed forces spread around the world, and the relative merits of too many armed conflicts, current, recent and past. These are political decisions beyond the control of our troops in the field; please let us not have that debate in this thread. Our men and women in uniform who serve with honor provide an invaluable service for which we owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid--just as we do all veterans. God bless them all.

Victor,
Thank you--Great post.

12/19/2012

Victor...

Thank You ! They're alwas in my prayers, I wish

they would come home tomorrow..........

Cheers..Joe...

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile."

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue...an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."


PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as
you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S.
service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities.
Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for
us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

This isn't a Christmas song, but I think it fits here:

MARIA'S FIRST ROSE

Dirty Helmet, shiny gun
Weary men too tired to run
Little girl on sandy shores
Watching solders go to war.

Lonely face not yet five years
Battle scarred and lined with fear
Little girl too young to die
Never knowing reasons why.

Little lady your sweet smile
Helps me down my dusty mile
Take my rose it's all I give
Please take it with my love
in hopes that you might live.

Tiny hand takes lonely rose
From stranger that she'll never know
Tearful eyes see soldier cry
As he turns to wave good-bye.

The little girl's grown older now
Wars have gone away
Still the rose within a page
Forever brings back memories that were
yesterdays.

Dirty helmet, shiny gun
Weary men too tired to run.
Little girl on sandy shores
Watching soldiers go to war.

-Audie Murphy

Reprinted in "Songwriter," A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy
with permission from the Audie Murphy Research Foundation

I remember my first Christmas away from home while stationed in Europe. It was a very lonely time. In order to drown my sorrow, I did a foolish thing and got drunk - very drunk. For a guy who didn't drink, it was an unforgetable experience. Being away from home during Christmas is a common thing for our men and women in the armed forces. They are doing their duty. Some are very lonely and dream of being home with their loved ones. Keeping thim in mind as Victor says, is a good thing to do.

I wrote this in 2005:

A Soldier's Christmas

Christmas comes but once a year,
So spare a thought and shed a tear
For all the loved ones who'll be missed
By parents waiting to be kissed.

When they return at long last,
Invite them in to break their fast,
And as they share the season's fare,
Show them how much you care.

Christmas comes but once a year,
So remember those who we hold dear,
Across the seas in foreign parts —
The soldiers with the biggest hearts.

They must stay until the job is done,
Fighting for our freedom, every one.
So pray for those who are honour bound
To bring them home, safe and sound.

Shelagh Watkins © 2005

Very good, Shelagh.

What Abe said.

What Abe and Alice said.