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A Memorial Day Poem
I began my career in ministry when I was 19 years old. Dan W, a pastor in Haltom City, Texas selected me to serve as his assistant and to lead the youth ministry, though I was, myself, a youth. Dan was a capable and energetic leader, confident and focused.
Of the many things he said to me, I most remember, “Do something, even if it is wrong.”
“Do something, even if it is wrong.”
Dan was a Marine. He was not an ex-Marine and barely a former Marine. He was a Marine and a Vietnam veteran. He served in Nam when he was just 18 years old. He participated in the Tet Offensive.1. His unit engaged in fierce combat. Dan’s best buddy was blown to shreds by an enemy explosive and died in his arms.
I don’t know if we had this name for it in 1980-81 when I served under Dan, but I believe he suffered from PTSD. (How could he not?)
As we remember today those warriors who never came home, let’s not forget those who never came home the way they left. They came back with experiences that would haunt them for a lifetime. Many of them returned to hostilities at home after serving their country and a cause they deeply believed in.
We honor the dead as we should. Let us also celebrate the living while we can – the ones who carried their fellow soldiers’ lifeless bodies from the battlefield, whose hearts and minds may never leave that awful place. I know we do that on Veteran’s Day and this day is for the dead and those they left behind. I am, however, reminded that those they left behind include the men and women with them at the end, when they sacrificed everything for their country.
For the valiant dead, I wrote a poem in 2014 and included it in my book Word Warrior: Killing Them Softly, One Rhyme at a Time, published in 2023.
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A Memorial Day Poem
Here’s to the boys
Who Died on unknown hills
In unnamed battles
Who rest in unmarked graves
Whose near-anonymous sacrifice
Secured the safety
And freedom
Of untold millions
To whom belongs
The whispered
But unknown
And Eternal Glory
Of the Widow’s Mite.
Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.j
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched a surprise attack on January 30, 1968 against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the United States Armed Forces and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam. The name is the truncated version of the Lunar New Year festival name in Vietnamese, Tết Nguyên Đán, with the offense chosen during a holiday period as most ARVN personnel were on leave. The purpose of the wide-scale offensive by the Hanoi Politburo was to trigger political instability in a belief that mass armed assault on urban centers would trigger defections and rebellions. –Wikipedia
