A Veteran's View

Ya' know, it's tough to be a veteran of a foreign war,
I had to go places I had never seen before.
To far off lands across the sea,
To fight a man who never did a thing to me.

I was thrust into his country, he had never been to mine,
America … free as the heavens, pristine, perhaps sublime.
His country, Korea, was brown, battle-scarred, dank and dreary,
Aall those things that made me sad and weary.

The hills were steep and very high, the enemy dug in tight,
We flushed them out during the day and into the night;
In turn, they harassed and plagued us with guns and with shell,
We believed General Sherman who said, "War is hell!"

But I was there to do as told, to keep the world so free,
Shot was fired back and forth, it seemed for all eternity.
And then I saw my buddies die, as we tried to stay alive,
Bullets buzzing all around us, like bees around a hive.

Both sides did their jobs in weather freezing cold,
With tremendous courage and stamina considered very bold.
And when the fighting stopped, we thanked our God once more,
For giving us one more day to even the score.

There came a time when all was over, we put away our "toys",
Most came home to renew our lives, to create much greater joys;
While honoring our fallen comrades, those who went to "sleep",
We aged, and forever promised their memories to keep.

We found ourselves as veterans, since 50 years have passed,
A "band of brothers", so to speak, for as long as we shall last;
I find that fading into history is not so difficult a chore,
For we know as veterans we shall meet again, on a far greater Shore!