FReeper Canteen ~ What's Your Holiday Personality? Grinch, Santa Claus or ??? ~ 29Nov2006

Serving The Best Troops In The World | Canteen Crew

[TASMANIANRED]

Let me give you a lift.

The new thread is up here.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746155/posts

Come on over and meet the folks.

[GraniteStateDad]

I scored as an elf...an elf?
Deep down inside I feel like Jesus on the day when He went into the temple and started flipping over tables and whipping the moneychangers.
Unfortunately, in most places, His presence isn't welcomed or necessary. That's sad because it's supposed to be a celebration of His birth.
Sorry to be such a scrooge!
GSD

[STARWISE]

U.S. Navy Lt. A.J. Pajack, center, and Petty Officer 1st Class Travis J. Schellpeper, left, conduct a predeparture convoy brief with a Latvian army convoy commander prior to a mission into Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, Oct. 30, 2006. Pajack is commander of the U.S. Navy's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3, and Schellpeper is an explosive ordnance technician. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

11/20/06 - An Iraqi girl talks with U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Marker in Mosul, Iraq, Nov. 20, 2006. Marker, a squad leader with 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, and fellow Soldiers are conducting a joint presence and community engagement with Iraqi army soldiers from 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division. DoD photo by Sgt. Antonieta Rico, U.S. Army. (Released)

WE THANK YOU SO MUCH, WE LOVE YOU & WE PRAY FOR YOU DAILY!

Heatwave ~~ Boogie Nights

Frank Sinatra, Count Basie Orchestra ~~ Learnin' The Blues

Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell ~~ Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Steam ~~ Na na na na hey hey

Parents: YOU are responsible
Justin Timberlake ~~ Senorita

Boney James ~~ Total Experience

Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby ~~ Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Johnny Mathis ~~ Sleigh Ride

Mannheim Steamroller ~~ God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, STAR, for the great pictures of our troops at work.

[STARWISE]

Hi kath ... welcome.

[SevenofNine]

Starwise do you have any carols of the bells by any artist

[stand watie]

evidently so.

there's LOTS of things worse than being one of us elves!

free dixie,sw

[SandRat]

Thank You and did. Got back about 10:30 pm. Great Meeting. Drive was C-O-L-D!!! In the low 20s.

[Mr. Silverback]

You're welcome! It's good to be back.

[Mr. Silverback]

Glad to do it!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[MikeyGo]

I have found an author for that poem and a more accurate rendering:

A SOLDIER'S CHRISTMAS
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep
in perfect contentment, or so it would seem.
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eye when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
and I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
to the window that danced with a warm fire's light
then he sighed and he said "It's really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night"

"Its my duty to stand at the front of the line,
that separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red white and blue... an American flag.

"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home,
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat,
I can carry the weight of killing another
or lay down my life with my sisters and brothers
who stand at the front against any and all,
to insure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone.
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
to know you remember we fought and we bled
is payment enough, and with that we will trust.
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

©Copyright December 7, 2000 by Michael Marks
Author's Note: A Soldier's Christmas was the first in this series of patriotic writings, drafted on Pearl Harbor Day 2000 when in the wake of the 2000 Presidential Election our nation saw the right of US Armed Forces personnel openly questioned and debated. I felt it unconscionable that at the onset of the Christmas season, those serving to defend our nation would hear anything but our love and support. It is our challenge to stand for their rights at home while they stand for our lives and safety overseas. This poem went out and quickly spread around the world in emails, letters, magazines. I received letters from Marines in Bosnia, soldiers in Okinawa, from a submariner who xeroxed a copy for everyone on his sub. Moms wrote, dads, brothers and sisters. I have saved and cherish every letter and set out to continue writing throughout the year.


Thanks again