A Combat Soldier's Prayer

This combat soldier's prayer, Who has served his time in Hell, Is may we learn the lessons of war well, That we not doom future generations, The same old tales of horror to tell, To endure what in youth they see mistakenly as glory. Oh God, do not let our children Repeat the same old story.

Make it so that America's babies live to grow old In this land of the free and the bold. Help us throw off the shackles of hate that bind And grow old in a life of a peaceful kind.

Teach us that there is no glory in war, Nor honor there that brave men should not abhor. Teach us instead, one for another our brothers to love. Shower us with thine Celestial message from above, That we plant seeds of peace evermore And make war-no-more!

But if I should die on some far, far away battlefield Know I answered the call For a grand principle of freedom to yield. My fervent prayer is that death May not have been in vain Fighting for peace and right for the world to attain.

My brothers, American roses standing by my side On alien soil dying In the summer of my youthful pride All the leaves around me falling,

Now I’m lying here still, in sunshine and in shadow, Longing to hear, “brother next door, I love you so." For moldering in the soft ground below, I feel you living and loving in the world above me Standing tall because I fought that you might be... Oh look ye down now, And tell me you still think of me Honor my red blood, spilt that others might stand free.

Tell me that I did not give my all for you in vain That brothers and sisters do not look upon my sacrifice With hateful, Or even worse, Uncaring disdain.

Do not forget me when my valley’s hushed And white with snow, Grass growing green in the summer of my meadow Help me see the peace I lived and died for grow.

Make my lonely grave richer, Sweeter be... Make this truly, "The land of the free And the home of the brave," I gave my life to save That I might too, lie eternally, Forever free...

Sometimes in the course of human events on the way in the pursuit of peace and happiness, war becomes an inevitable necessity. When madmen threaten our very freedoms, values and loved ones, good men are duty bound to stand to defend and protect. But there are lessons to be learned in the history of these battles, or we doom ourselves to repeat them in a series of "wars to end all wars." The question is ever on the lips of our nation's veterans..."When will they ever learn?"

The question is ever on the lips of our nation's veterans..."When will they ever learn?"

When "they" stop asking for a "Peace Dividend". Then we will have learned that "Peace" is the dividend of being prepared for war.

In the 90's we capitulated to the false ideal that peace is a "natural" state of man. It is not, conflict is. When we forget this and other lessons of war, someone will always, unpleasantly, remind us.

God save the Republic and her soldiers.

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