Remembering our Troops at Christmas time...

[GirlGuide]

While you are enjoying the holiday season, please take a minute to remember our troops.  Currently serving or not, they deserve our gratitude.
 
 
 

 

 

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.'

[Grute Man]

http://www.westsky.com/decals_pins.htm

[tripnchip]

I was going to post this in the gander contest but felt because of what it brings to my mind this was a more fitting place. It is a few evening pics. from a sieres I took of a Bald egale watching over his part of the world. Just as our men and women in uniform stand and watch over our part of the world for us. Do they want to be there? Not realy, they would rather be safe at home with their family, but they understand what it took  and what was given to build our part of the world and they are willing and proud to give what it takes to keep our part of the world safe. And lets not forget their family, they are possibly giving up their son, daughter, husband , wife dad or mom.
  Take a close look at these pics. and then imagine that eagle as a person in uniform trying to keep their mind off their loved ones back home and on their job so they will live to see their loved ones again.
 Sorry, No I'm not, I just respect those that have fallen before and after me.

[repoman]

god bless them all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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[repoman]

another one

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