A WARRIOR’S TEARS

A WARRIOR’S TEARS

He is nearing the end of another tour.
He counts the days till the end.
Through continued battles he must endure.
He prays for a buddy to mend.

One gravely injured in a recent attack,
His future uncertain, at best.
He cannot find solace as he pushes back
For a much needed moment of rest.

One buddy injured, another deceased,
He tries his emotions to contain.
Holding his buddy as his spirit is released
There is no way to relate to his pain.

He sits there with tears running down his cheek,
He wonders what tomorrow will bring.
No one will call him frail or weak,
In combat it’s an unheard of thing!

Many will never this scene comprehend,
They’re too busy to pause to reflect.
For the many that expired where duty did send
Let us never forget to respect!

Yes, freedom’s price is extremely high!
Multitudes have found this to be true!
Instead of complaining and questioning why,
Be thankful that warriors do what they do!

Dr. James E. Martin
September, 2013

They shall grow not old

❤

Rest easy brave warriors, We will always remember.

  ❤

Gallery: Afghanistan-Occupied

Afghanistan 1 (Photo credit: jankie)

As much as I enjoy images of our troops doing what they do best, there’s the other side of the coin–the dark side–that goes with finding them.   In every theater that I’ve gathered images from, for one ‘heroic’ picture I find, there are at least 5 that  make me gasp.  Images of American/allied KIA  or children living  in the midst of war–for most of them its everyday life–the norm.  I’ve included a few  pictures of Afghan children below, some of them in the poppy fields. They help the elders (family) with harvest,  gathering the green bulbs swollen with raw opium; the main ingredient in heroin. 

Click any image to launch slide show.

Images found via Google image search (US Soldiers in Afghanistan).

Related articles

• As US draws down, Afghan opium production thrives

General War Trivia Questions

English: Uboat 155 exhibited in London after World War I. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1) Which of the following wars claimed the lives of the most U.S. soldiers?

To return to this page after answering, click the back button and not the link provided on the answer page. Enjoy!

Choose Your Answer: A: U.S. Revolutionary War, B: U.S. Civil War, C: World War I, D: World War II

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“You may hate the war, but never hate the ones that fight. For they do not choose when or where to fight. All they chose was to protect who they love and even the people they don’t know.” 
― Millie

USMC-What is love?

I’ve been inundated with sad news today, most of which surrounds  our military. I needed something on the ‘lighter side” of all of this so I’m sharing a video of our Marines having fun during some well deserved downtime. (2006)This is one of my favorites out of my “downtime” collection. It’s good to see smiles on their faces. Enjoy!  🙂

U.S. Military Actions and Wars, 1775 – 1994

 

I was going to keep this as a reference for myself but thought I’d make it available to you, too. NOTE: This timeline only goes  through 1994, I’ll add the remainder soon.  U.S. Military Actions and Wars, 1775 – 1994 

 

1775-1783: The Thirteen Colonies
Colonists wage and win a guerilla war for American independence from England
1798-1800: The Quasi-War
Along the U.S. Atlantic Coast and the West Indies, an undeclared war with France begins; the U.S. wins 9 of 10 naval encounters.
1801-1805: Tripolitan War
Tripoli (now Libya) declares war on the U.S.; the U.S. responds by blockading and then invading Tripoli.

Letters from the frontline

 

Dan Welch

Date: March 8, 1991
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Home: Maine

Letter
“I can’t describe it. I mean the scene on the highway. We all just looked at it in the moonlight as we drove through the now silent carnage going God damn, God damn… There was a dead Iraqi in a car, eyes wide open, frozen in a silent scream… I guess I’ve played it so much for the last ten years that it just didn’t seem much different than the training. I’ve had field problems that were tougher. The waiting and worrying before we did it were worse than doing it. …It’s only been the last couple of days that I’ve come to realize the horror that has taken place here. …And I think it’s taken so long because with only the small number of exceptions on our part, it was almost entirely theirs…”

Resolution
After the war, Welch developed asthma, memory and equilibrium problems. He has since retired from the military.

Source

He bares the name: Warrior

“Even in times of trauma, we try to maintain a sense of normality until we no longer can. That, my friends, is called surviving. Not healing. We never become whole again … we are survivors. If you are here today… you are a survivor. But those of us who have made it thru hell and are still standing? We bare a different name:  WARRIORS.”
― Lori Goodwin

It’s the Soldier

By: Charles M. Province

A protest raged on a courthouse lawn,
Round a makeshift stage they charged on,
Fifteen hundred or more they say,
Had come to burn a Flag that day.
A boy held up the folded Flag,
Cursed it, and called it a dirty rag.
An OLD MAN pushed through the angry crowd,
With a rusty shotgun shouldered proud…

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“Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.” 
― John Milton

Soviets begin withdrawal from Afghanistan: 1988

More than eight years after they intervened in Afghanistan to support the pro-communist government, Soviet troops begin their withdrawal. The event marked the beginning of the end to a long, bloody, and fruitless Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Mission Accomplished…?

 Earlier, while looking for a post for “Today in History” I came across a 3 second blurb about, then president G. W. Bush who made a tailhook landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln (aircraft carrier) to address the Sailors and other military personnel–announcing the end of the conflict in Iraq back in 2003–I can see why there isn’t much being said of this event today. Well,  I’ve never been the type to tip-toe around the truth or the emotions that may ensue from said truth–so I’m bringing it up–and I’ve included pictures and the YouTube video of the speech. Enjoy.

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❝Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.❞
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

 

 

 

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“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation”― Jonathan Larson