Writing songs of compassion and understanding for returning soldiers (Darryl Worley)

Veterans Today ^ | 11/20/06 | Charles Hadlock

[GailA]

I heard it yesterday and it is as moving as Have You Forgotten.

[the invisib1e hand]

"Have you forgotten" ought to be our national anthem.

[NucSubs]

I've been waiting for a post on this song. I read the lyrics as the closest thing to an ANTI war song as I have heard from Country music but wanted other opiniosn - including of course Mr. Worley's!

[GailA]

No I don't think it's an anti-war song, it's about the fact we are hated in the ME even by those we have freed. That many here at home don't care any more..war fatigue among the conservatives and the constant stream of anti-Bush/war from the Libs and the MSM.

My step dad talked only vaguley about his WWII experience, never mentioned once he won a Bronze Star. We know from past experience that war changes people. This is what Worley is saying in his song. People noticed he was not the same person he was before he went to war.

[NucSubs]

Okay, wait a minute...

You said: "it's about the fact we are hated in the ME even by those we have freed (IOW by the people we are tring to save) . That many here at home don't care any more (IOW the people we are trying to protect)".

Now that is how I heard the song as well...so HOW is that not to some degree at least a song which gives voice to sentiments against this current war?

[jan in Colorado]

I said I just came back
From a place where they hated me
And everything I stand for
A land where our brothers
Are dying for others
Who don’t even care anymore

I heard this song the other day...to me, it's as anti-war as you can get! They are NOT hated by the Iraqis who were liberated!

VERY disappointing song, especially from Mr. Worley!

[Modok]

Worley has it wrong. There are many brave Iraqis who are putting everything on the line for this fight. They are doing things to secure their country and their freedon that requires courage at a level that many in this country could not muster except in their dreams. When those who fight outside the wire many times a day in the heat, sweat, fire, and smell of blood come back to this country and see the weakness and self centered-ness of the others their own age who do not voluteer and fight they are disgusted. When their mothers tell them to never let themselves be taken alive, but fight to take as many with them as they can before they die, it is not something that the rest of slack jawed, self pitying people in this country can even comprehend. Go outside, on the sidewalk with a 60 pound pack on and take a knee on the concrete for 6 hours with temp at 100 and watch for haj. People who willingly go to do this or have their cloths burned off in a VBED blast scare the ever loving shit out of democrats and liberals in this country.

Sorry for the language!

[jan in Colorado]

You obviously "get" it!

Worth repeating...There are many brave Iraqis who are putting everything on the line for this fight.

Our brave men and women are LIBERATORS and the majority of Iraqis are VERY grateful that we are there. Of course the ENEMEDIA will only report the bad news...NEVER the good!

IMHO, this song does NOT invoke compassion or understanding for the returning soldier, it says it wasn't worth it! I am disgusted...

[GailA]

Think about it, it is what we see nightly on the MSM, even FNC, and all our Troops see when they get the time to see the news or even read it. If you are not reading conservative blogs or FR then all you get is doom and gloom No matter how much good WE and our Troops know they are doing the majority of the public doesn't know it.

I'd kiss the ground of the USA too if I just came back from war. I suspect many of our returning Troops do to.

[GailA]

He says he came back from a place he felted hated in, all to true many in the ME do hate us. We see it nightly on the MSM, we hear it daily from the LIBS. The ME's who do like us are silent for the most part.

The dying for others to me means we Americans, the ones who don't care is about the many LIBS and the MSM of why our Troops are giving their all. Heck the LIBS/MSM hate the US and all we stand for, so they don't care and probably never cared why our Military fight and die for love of country and family.

He's praying that what he did will keep our children safe at home and from having to go to war in the future.

He hopes you will cherish our sweet way of life in America and that you know it comes with a price...i.e. Freedom isn't Free, it is bought with the blood, sweat and tears of our Military and their families.

[NucSubs]

Respectfully, I think you need to re-read the lyrics and your posts.

Forget the kissing the ground part for a minute (I never brought that up). Tell me what I am missing here.

He says he came back from a place where they hate him and all he stands for. That it is a land where his brothers are dying for ungrateful people (Iraqis or Americans...it is not quite clear).

How do those sentiments have ANYTHING to do with the MSM? More importantly how does that make it NOT anti-Iraq-war?

[jan in Colorado]

I appreciate you posting this article and for the discussion that has followed...

I suspect, like me, you are a Darryl Worley fan and really want to believe this is not propaganda!

I heard this song for the first time the other day and I had to pull over, it made me feel so sick. The words are from the soldier, NOT from the anti American libs and ENEMEDIA! He says that HE was hated and they are dying for others who don't care! That is the left-wing talking points....being said by a "soldier" returning from war!

I have talked to many soldiers and NONE feel like that. We are hated by our enemies in the ME, not by those who welcome freedom and are risking their lives as well.

He is right that soldiers come home changed...how could they not? Anyone who witnesses evil is changed, forever, but that isn't always a bad thing either.

You may see it differently GailA...but I see it as a propaganda song with the "I support the troops BUT NOT the war"!

I support the troops AND the mission!

[Swiss]

I don't know. There was lots of good tunes back in the 80's like "Still in Saigon", "Walking on a Thin Line", "Goodnight Saigon", "Born in the USA".

But songs like those and Worley's imply that all vets coming back from war is damaged goods. Simple fact is that most vets returning from Iraq won't be combat troops that might have those combat stress problems.

Stereotypes are created that hurts returning soldiers "Hey this Iraq War vet has a great resume". "Yes but you know they all came back screwed up and bitter from that war, Hire someone else".

I personally would like a Johnny Horton or Barry Sadler type of tune about our heroes in the Military. Maybe those songs aren't realistic but society and the Military needs John Wayne wanna be's joining the military rather than Montgomery Cliff angst types.

[GailA]

Maybe you and the other posters are right. But I just don't read anti-war into this song. Worley's been there 3 times for them. His Have You Forgotten has more than one song supporting our Military on it. His song about the POW on it is a great one.

[GailA]

“To ask these people to go off to war, and experience the things you experience when you’re involved in a war, and come back home and be the same guy and gal they were when you left, that’s not going to happen,” Worley said. “I just hope that maybe that song will make a few people sit up and take notice and be a little more compassionate”

This is what I read into the song...being compassionate toward our Military who have experienced war.

[Ciexyz]

To me, the line "they don't even care anymore" makes it an anti-war song. That was the big argument about Vietnam (and I remember that era well), that our soldiers were fighting for people who didn't appreciate it and by extension, weren't worth dying for -- therefore, the attitude in this song weakens morale.

[GailA]

Re-read the article.

"This is a very different song from ‘Have You Forgotten,’” said Chris Huff, Music Director at KSCS-FM in Dallas.

"[The songs] are very similar in that they do mirror the mood, but the mood has changed; so the songs are very different,” Huff said. Hoping for a ‘warmer welcome’ for soldiers

Back on his Tennessee farm, Worley wants to make it clear that his new song is not in any way political.

“To me this song doesn't reflect any change of position as far as where I stand,” he said. “I don't necessarily know that anybody cares what I think about all that; I hope not.

"There's so much sacrifice. If we can see that for what it is and try to understand - some of the things these people are having to deal with, maybe when they return home, it'll be a little warmer welcome."

[jan in Colorado]

It's funny how we can interpret things differently, isn't it? I wish I didn't "hear" anti war when I hear that song. True, it isn't as blatant as the flaming left...just a "touch," but to say we are hated and no one cares...is a total misrepresentation of what the truth is; and I expected a lot more from Darryl Worley.

I love the other two songs you mentioned, and I would like this one A LOT if it didn't have that one stanza in it.

Please know I am in no way criticizing you and your interpretation, I just felt I had to share mine as well. ;o)
Thanks again for posting the article and the lyrics. It did me good to vent!

[GailA]

I remember it all to well too. My ex was a Vietnam Vet...he had nightmares for a long time. And I remember the hippies spitting on our returning Troops and our Troops not even being able to defend themselves from the trash they were dying to keep free. The same types our current Military are dying to keep free. Those same types would have done the same thing to the Iraqi Vets as they did to the Vietnam Vets if people like you and me and others here at FR hadn't staged our support rallies at the beginning of the Iraqi War. Here's another of Worley's songs.

POW 369

By Darryl Worley

An old man pulled out in front of me
And I went crazy as can be
I lost my mind
I blew my horn till I got close enough to see
And what was on his car-tag sure convicted me
POW 369

I should slaute you from this heart of mine
And thank you for placing your life on the line
For me, I'm free
I pray that the rest of your journey is a peaceful one
And may you take your own sweet time
Mr. POW 369

The things we take for granted
In this life we lead are tragic
We should be ashamed
He left his home and family
And cast his fate across the sea
Would we do the same
Well I sure bet he's got some stories he could tell
Ain't that many ever made it back from hell
POW 369

I should slaute you from this heart of mine
And thank you for placing your life on the line
For me, I'm free
I pray that the rest of your journey is a peaceful one
And may you take your own sweet time
Mr. POW 369

Let me thank you one more time
Mr. POW 369

[jan in Colorado]

I should slaute you from this heart of mine
And thank you for placing your life on the line
For me, I'm free