Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Please remember our troops and their families during the holidays!

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


In God We Trust


This came to me in my email. I remember seeing it last year. It is important to me, my family and friends that we remember our troops and their families during the holidays. Thanks to God and thanks to our troops, we live free this season. - Hamp

5 comments:

Ally said...

I <3 you for this. I needed this pick-me-up today.

As always, my family is excited to celebrate Christ's birth & we have so much for which to be grateful (like my first Christmas being married to my wonderful husband!) but i desperately miss my brother.

Praying for the safety of all of our troops until the day they all come home. And praying for the thousands of military families (especially the children of soldiers) celebrating Christmas without their loved ones.

Much love & a grateful heart to you Hamp! Merry Christmas to all the Tanners!!

Ally said...

Forgot to add:

For anyone that still would like to donate a care package to soldiers serving oversees, please visit Operation Gratitude, eMail Our Military, or the USO.

Here are the links-please donate folks!

http://opgratitude.com/index.php

http://emailourmilitary.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-care-packages-to-troops.html

http://www.uso.org/

Hunker Down said...

Ally,

Thank you for linking the Operation Gratitude. Happy to contribute! Alos, you know I had you and your brother in mind when I posted this... along with my buddies still serving. Merry Christmas to you all.

Hunker Down said...

Here is another place to donate to Marines deployed overseas: http://america4rmarines.org/

This is the one Neal Boortz promotes on his show and website as "Merry Christmas Marines". Love our Marines and the Sailors who get them where they are going!

Please support our troops any way you can. Merry Christmas!

Ally said...

Just made a donation on behalf of the Garner family to America 4R Marines. Rob is in the Army so i had on idea ab this organization! Thanks for pointing me toward their direction. If there are specific Navy organizations that assist Sailors, please let me know.

And as always, i covet your prayers and am so grateful you continue to pray for him! As my Nana used to say (lifted from Psalms, of course) "my cup runneth over" :)