Let's remember our servicepeople at this time of the year - Page 1

They serve to give us all the right to say just we want anytime, anyplace 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."

Thanks flygirl, this one always makes my eyes sweat. A big yes. let us remember and thank those in service present and past, and their families.

I admit to being a little too patriotic and sometimes a little too mushy about this kind of stuff. I know that it is a little silly but when I am watching CNN and the commercials come on, I usually get up and do something and come back to the TV, but sometimes CNN rolls pics and names of our fallen hero's overseas and I just can't leave the room without looking at each pic and reading the names and what city they are from. I know, it's silly, but I "just have to". I feel like it is a duty to them, to at least look at them and read their names (not out loud). It always intrigues me the various places these fallen men and women are from. Most seem to be from small towns that I have never heard of. You would think that the majority would be from our large cities, but it doesn't seem to work out that way, for some, as yet unknown reason to me. I guess there are just a lot more small towns than I imagine. I have always been associated with bigger cities. Anyway, nice thoughts and nice poem. My best friend has one son in Iraq in the Marines in a grunt unit and one son in the Air Force being trained in some kind of "Recon" type work, similar to what we had in the Marines, which I did for a couple of years, called a "Forward Observer", if any of you are familiar with that. When the son in the Marines came home for a while, I noticed a change in him not for the better. We were going somewhere and stopped at a gas station to get a pop or whatever, and it was run by Arab type people. As we were driving out of the gas station lot, he remarked to his father something like this: "I should go back in there and choke the shit out of him". The "guy" had done nothing wrong and the father asked his son "why" and the son remarked "because he is what he is". This shocked both me and his father, as he was nothing like this prior to going to Iraq. We do know that he lost some comrades that were just a few feet away from him, more than once while there. His father is a cop but a very, very religious person and is bothered very much about this change of personality. The son had to go back though and is there now. I pray for him. I wish they could all come home whole, but it won't happen that way. Freedom ain't free. Whether it is our freedom or someone else's freedom, that we are helping to obtain. These are my thoughts. Please do not ruin this thread with anti Bush or other such talk. We are where we are, and this thread is about "them", in whatever location they are in.

supporting and remembering our servicemen and women is not a political issue. it is a national issue. God bless them all and have mercy on those who have fallen or been injured and on all their families. beautiful poem.

Good thoughts to our servicemen and women! And let's not forget the Iraqi people....God bless!!!

YES never forget !! Merry Christmas to our Soldiers paying the ultimate price some with their lives, others away from their daughters sons wifes family on chritmas . My hubby served in Iraq and I am one of the fortunate wifes and our 3 children to have him home !! Pia