I AM FOREVER A SOLDIER By Charles R Letner, Captain, US Army Retired (A revision but more to follow) I have been there since the beginning. The Spanish American war, the revolution and the civil. I was at Shiloh and Gettysburg. I was there at the Alamo, Bunker Hill, Montezuma, Viet Nam, Korea and Iraq. I have been shot, stabbed and blown up. I have shot stabbed and blown others up. There is blood on my rifle, my bayonet and on my hands. I have faced the winter’s cold, and the summer’s heat. I have dropped from the sky and I have surfaced from the ocean depths. I have marched in the desert, the forest and in the mountains. I have killed with my bare hands. I have lied and I have been silent. I have been free and captive. I survived the camps and buried my comrades in those camps. I have traveled the roads in trucks, my boots and armored vehicles. My feet have been sore, cold, wet and tired. My hands, sweaty and cold at the same time. I have seen things that an 18 year old should never have to witness and older men cannot forget. I have come home to a hero’s welcome and to those that hate me yet they do not know me. I have medals on my chest that I earned and I have smelled my own fear to receive them. I have been scared and I have overcome that fear. I have starved and I have been full. I did not kill because I wanted to, but because the other guy was determined to kill me. I have served those that I cannot respect; I respect those that I serve. I have heard the screams of the wounded and the cries for the Medic. I have been deafened by the sound of the bombs and the concussion of the explosions. My ears bleed at the sound of Taps, and a tear forms at the sound of the Bagpipes. I have survived on fear and the land. I learned that bugs and plants can aid in survival. I have nightmares and cannot function in the real world anymore. The sound of an exploding firecracker can send me for cover. My family says they don’t know me anymore and how the service to my country had changed me. My country has turned it s back on me and yet I still love her. I am forever a soldier. I have seen wicked men flourish and good men die. I have had the best training and I used that training to survive. I have had chevrons on my sleeve and stars on my collar. I have been called brave but my actions were born out of fear. I have sent young soldiers on missions that I knew they would not survive and I have been on missions where few would survive. I have given up my place on the medivac so that a comrade could survive. My sacrifice has been voluntary and proud. I am forever a soldier. I have sat around the campfires to stay warm and we have dug holes to live in for days at a time. I have sacrificed my legs, my hearing and eyesight, my arms and sometimes ultimately my life. I have been scarred by wounds of bullets, knives and bombs, and my body is wracked in pain. I have died in glory, unquestioning, uncomplaining. My name is immortalized on memorials and fields of White Crosses litter the landscapes where the brave, the weak, the sons, dads, mothers, daughters, and brothers are laid. I am the unknown. I was taught to not give up and never to leave a fallen soldier behind. I have been proud to give my life for my country and I have been proud to survive the horrors of battle and still serve this country that I love. You are free because of me and my fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen. Duty Honor and Country and not mere words to me, it is my code, my driving force to survive. And should I not, you will still be free as will I.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 23:41:42 +0000