A Tribute to All Who Serve

[jaxson50]

A Tribute to all who have served.

 

On the eleventh of November 1918, at 11:00 am the Great War came to an end, after four years of the bloodiest fighting the world have ever witnessed the guns fell silent. War had become industrialized during the four years of mayhem from August of 1914 to November of 1918, warfare on a level that a few years prior had been incomprehensible. From Africa

to Russia, across all of Europe, engulfing the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and even on the German held islands in the Pacific Ocean, war claimed lives at a unbelievable pace.

A crescendo of butcher was achieved on the first day of July, 1916 in a place called the Somme the British forces suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead most of the losses taken in the first hour of battle. The Battle of the Somme would result in over 1 million casualties with out victory for either side, just stalemate that went on till the end of hostilities, men on both sides living in trenches that stretched for miles reinforced with wooden timbers, infested with rats, the walls of the trenches also served

as the final resting place for many of the dead, sharing the mud and the mire with the living.

No one saw more of the suffering then did the ambulance drivers and the medical corps that had the most dangerous assignment of removing as many wounded and dead from the trenches and the area known as "No-mans land" a place the medical corpsmen call "Dead-mans land". For the men who served in the Medical Corps the war did not end on the Eleventh of November 1918, their job went on caring for the wounded, recovering and burying the dead went on

for years after the guns were silenced.

One of the men who served in the medical corps was a Canadian poet named Robert Service, the man who entertained us with poems about the Gold Rush in the Klondike, now turned his pen to the topic that laid before him and in so doing he gave us one of the most moving and vivid snap shots of the price paid by those who do go to war. The poem was penned after he witnessed the Victory Day celebrations in London a year after the war had ended.

It is appropriate that we read his words today, it is vital that we never forget the cost of war.

Please take the time to read his work slowly and think of his and others Baptism in blood and gore that we call............................War.

 

 

The March of the Dead

The cruel war was over -- oh, the triumph was so sweet!

We watched the troops returning, through our tears;

There was triumph, triumph, triumph down the scarlet glittering street,

And you scarce could hear the music for the cheers.

And you scarce could see the house-tops for the flags that flew between;

The bells were pealing madly to the sky;

And everyone was shouting for the Soldiers of the Queen,

And the glory of an age was passing by.

 

And then there came a shadow, swift and sudden, dark and drear;

The bells were silent, not an echo stirred.

The flags were drooping sullenly, the men forgot to cheer;

We waited, and we never spoke a word.

The sky grew darker, darker, till from out the gloomy rack

There came a voice that checked the heart with dread:

"Tear down, tear down your bunting now, and hang up sable black;

They are coming -- it's the Army of the Dead."

 

They were coming, they were coming, gaunt and ghastly, sad and slow;

They were coming, all the crimson wrecks of pride;

With faces seared, and cheeks red smeared, and haunting eyes of woe,

And clotted holes the khaki couldn't hide.

Oh, the clammy brow of anguish! the livid, foam-flecked lips!

The reeling ranks of ruin swept along!

The limb that trailed, the hand that failed, the bloody finger tips!

And oh, the dreary rhythm of their song!

 

"They left us on the veldt-side, but we felt we couldn't stop

On this, our England's crowning festal day;

We're the men of Magersfontein, we're the men of Spion Kop,

Colenso -- we're the men who had to pay.

We're the men who paid the blood-price. Shall the grave be all our gain?

You owe us. Long and heavy is the score.

Then cheer us for our glory now, and cheer us for our pain,

And cheer us as ye never cheered before."

 

The folks were white and stricken, and each tongue seemed weighted with lead;

Each heart was clutched in hollow hand of ice;

And every eye was staring at the horror of the dead,

The pity of the men who paid the price.

They were come, were come to mock us, in the first flush of our peace;

Through writhing lips their teeth were all agleam;

They were coming in their thousands -- oh, would they never cease!

I closed my eyes, and then -- it was a dream.

 

There was triumph, triumph, triumph down the scarlet gleaming street;

The town was mad; a man was like a boy.

A thousand flags were flaming where the sky and city meet;

A thousand bells were thundering the joy.

There was music, mirth and sunshine; but some eyes shone with regret;

And while we stun with cheers our homing braves,

O God, in Thy great mercy, let us nevermore forget

The graves they left behind, the bitter graves.

 

 

Amen

[Big Bill]

Wow, thank you for sharing this.

 

Makes me proud to have served.

[Sinner 13]

Myself as well.

It is nice to see some people are still appreciative towards those of us that made the choice to defend this country.

regardless of what campaign, or era you served, thank you to all my brothers and sisters who have worked tirelessly to keep us all safe.

[Californiaman]

That's quite a tribute.

[jaxson50]

Country Joe McDonald released War War War in 1971, it is a all acoustic record consisting of poems by Robert Service from his collection of work written during WWI. If you ever see a copy of this record pick it up, it is the best work of his career.

I must make a correction on The March of the Dead was penned during the Boer War but published was after WWI.

His brother Albert was killed in action in France Aug. 1916, Robert dedicated his work during the war to him, and this poem was the introduction to the book, Rhymes of a Red Cross Man

 

I've tinkered at my bits of rhymes

In weary, woeful, waiting times;

In doleful hours of battle-din,

Ere yet they brought the wounded in;

Through vigils of the fateful night,

In lousy barns by candle-light;

In dug-outs, sagging and aflood,

On stretchers stiff and bleared with blood;

By ragged grove, by ruined road,

By hearths accurst where Love abode;

By broken altars, blackened shrines

I've tinkered at my bits of rhymes.

 

 

I've solaced me with scraps of song

The desolated ways along:

Through sickly fields all shrapnel-sown,

And meadows reaped by death alone;

By blazing cross and splintered spire,

By headless Virgin in the mire;

By gardens gashed amid their bloom,

By gutted grave, by shattered tomb;

Beside the dying and the dead,

Where rocket green and rocket red,

In trembling pools of poising light,

With flowers of flame festoon the night.

Ah me! by what dark ways of wrong

I've cheered my heart with scraps of song.

 

 

So here's my sheaf of war-won verse,

And some is bad, and some is worse.

And if at times I curse a bit,

You needn't read that part of it;

For through it all like horror runs

The red resentment of the guns.

And you yourself would mutter when

You took the things that once were men,

And sped them through that zone of hate

To where the dripping surgeons wait;

And wonder too if in God's sight

War ever, ever can be right.

 

 

Yet may it not be, crime and war

But effort misdirected are?

And if there's good in war and crime,

There may be in my bits of rhyme,

My songs from out the slaughter mill:

So take or leave them as you will.

[damian]

Thankyou for all who have served, thankyou to those who serve and thankyou to those who will serve.

 

My oldest daughter served.....I tried to join the Marines way back when but didn't pass one test....That doesn't count but I did try to serve...

 

All veterans should be showered with the utmost respect and dignity.

 

The VA says that there are 107,000 homeless veterans; I think this figure is low, and no veteran should be homeless for any reason.

[NeoConMan]

I tried to join the Marines way back when but didn't pass one test....That doesn't count but I did try to serve...

I'm with you.

 

My dad retired 1976 after 22 years in the Army.

1983 I decided to join - against his wishes. He wanted me in the Air Force or Navy instead.

 

Childhood athsma and an impressive driving record kept me out.

A year later I tried again in another city - almost pulled it off but they found my paperwork from the other induction center.

Put me in an office, threatened me with legal action for fraud, chewed my butt real good.

Once they felt they had gotten through to me, they smiled, shook my hand, thanked me for trying and sent me home.

 

I've spent my entire adult life on the outside helping those guys any way I can.

Wish I could have done more.

[dbreslauer]

that was absolutely brilliant, thanks for sharing. I wonder if Eric Bogle read that when he wrote "Green Fields of France" (aka 'No Man's Land'). Every time i hear the recording the Clancy Brothers did of that song, i get chills, and this poem immediately brought that song to mind...

 

-Don

[Daryl M]

Thank You.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odeJXfNsIaQ

[jaxson50]

Wow, thank you for sharing this.

 

Makes me proud to have served.

Don't thank me...Thank a Vet!!!

[Tman5293]

Thank you to all of those on the forum who have served or are currently serving. No soldier should ever go unthanked for his service to our great nation. It's very important that everyone remembers that freedom is not free.