thank you to the men and women of the armed services

[REDNECK HIPPIE]

Charles J. Prusik
MOURNING’S BLACK VEIL

Children sent to war
Aged but a score
Never really knowing
What they are dying for
Unaware of grandiose schemes
Only of dim political themes

And so it was in our land
A decade or so ago
America’s line of heroes
Sent out to die
As the drums did roll
To seek the vibrant souls
Of all those gallant young men
Fair and dark
Forfeit of freedom of life and limb
Falling in conflicts of terror
In jungle slime so dark and dim
When the drums of war did roll

While wives and mothers wait
Weeping. weeping
Sons’ and Fathers’ fate
Ah. You greedy bastards of war
Feral spawnings of the whore
Count your silver tithes
And hear not Mothers wail
nor see desolate wives
in mourning’s black veil

©Copyright Friday June 13, 1986 by Charles J. Prusik

Author’s Note: The above poem, Mourning’s Black Veil took me three years to write, mainly because I could not find an ending to it. that is until the day of one of the first “Welcome Home” parades was staged on Friday the 13th of June 1986 in Chicago, Illinois.

The parade began at the old Navy Pier, passed down Michigan Ave. with cheering crowds and ticker tape, and finally ended at Grant Park. There, the parade organizers had brought the Moving Wall to Chicago.

I was looking for panel 31 east when I noticed a lady with an arm full of roses, all dressed in black, and wearing a mourning veil. She was going from one panel to the next, where she would lay a rose at the base of the panel, kneel, and say a prayer, then got up and repeated the process at the next panel.

Then I realized I had the ending for this poem. For to me, she represented every mother, wife, girlfriend, or woman who had ever seen her man off into harms way and had lost him to some petty social/political whim.

[Uscgthumper]

Honor Our Military

Let's honor our military,
The men and women who serve,
Whose dedication to our country
Does not falter, halt or swerve.
Let's respect them for their courage;
They're ready to do what's right
To keep America safe,
So we can sleep better at night.
Let's support and defend our soldiers,
Whose hardships are brutal and cruel,
Whose discipline we can't imagine,
Who follow each order and rule.
Here's to those who choose to be warriors
And their helpers good and true;
They're fighting for American values;
They're fighting for me and you.

By Joanna Fuchs

[Brandiiiiiiii]

My heroes don't wear their
underwear on top of their pants,
nor do they wear a cape;
Mine wear combat boots and dog tags.

[I Am Enzo - The Baker]

Brandiiiiiiii wrote:

My heroes don't wear their
underwear on top of their pants,
nor do they wear a cape;
Mine wear combat boots and dog tags.

The true Hero sacrifices all and never returns it home...

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[Brandiiiiiiii]

I Am Enzo - The Baker wrote:

<quoted text>The true Hero sacrifices all and never returns it home...

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

That was amazing, thank you. Never forget.

[REDNECK HIPPIE]

Jack A. Quintana
HAVE YOU LIVED?

You look at me and my decisions in life.
The look of concern and sadness gives me a chuckle.
I have my reasons and they are clear to me.
Death holds no sway for me, for
I have lived more lives in this one lifetime
Than you will live in a millennium.

I have lived the lover’s life
Full of wooing the beautiful and a heart filled with sorrow
For those that have left and those that are no more.

I have walked the warrior’s path
I have been to the four corners of this terrestrial plane.
I have seen the lowliest of men rise to the glory of gods,
And I have seen the born noble cower and cringe at the sight of battle.

I have spoken the philosophers tongue
I felt life, for I have lived many. I know why I was put here
I know the gods of men; I have seen the basic instinct of the primal
Chaos and Order are two lovers that will never share the same bed.

I have been the father and I have been the son
Full Circle of the origins and the end
Two of the opposites making the one

I am the elder
I have felt the cold clasp of age
And to me it is nothing but an eventual ending to a long story.

To myself I have been true,
Old words to an old song,
I have filled my life well with many things
Many I cherish, and many I despise.
But they are mine and mine alone
Do not condemn me or idolize me.
Look to yourself and what you have before you.
And ask
Have you lived?

©Copyright November 14, 2006 by Jack Quintana

[REDNECK HIPPIE]

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

How to Save a Life - Military Tribute

[Brandiiiiiiii]

REDNECK HIPPIE wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =LFcAh6KMnnw

How to Save a Life - Military Tribute

Touched my heart & soul. My hero's.

[Uscgthumper]

A Soldier's Promise ...

I cannot promise you every night of my life. I cannot promise to be beside you for every difficult moment, every trial, every hardship. In truth, I can promise you that I will not be with you for most. I will leave you at inconvenient times. I may miss the births of our children. Any special date to us may be tainted with the anniversary of the death of one of my friends. I will ask you to take over whatever life we have built together for months and years at a time. And will then crash back into that life that you have used your sweat and your tears and your heartache to keep together and try to take it back as I knew it before. I will shut you out at times because it will be the best way for me to hold it together at that moment. I will lie to you. I will tell you I don't know things when I do. I will not always tell you where I am going, when I will be back, or who I am with. I may not call you for weeks and months and you will not be able to call me. You will ask questions that I won't answer. You will know answers to questions that you will hope you never need. I will share things with my brothers that you will never understand. They will know things about me that you never will. They will be a support to me in some things that you cannot be. I will miss birthdays. I will miss anniversaries. I will have to get to know our children over and over again. I may need time to process things that seem natural to everyone else. It will seem that someone - or something - will always take precedence over you. You may lose me long before you ever thought possible. I will uproot you and ask you to re-establish our family anywhere in the world, in any season, at any time - over and over again. Sand and mud will be tracked through your halls from the boots I am too tired to take off. I will leave you when you beg me not to. I will stand at attention while you cry beside me. I will not turn my head and I will walk away. I will knowingly break your heart. And I will do it again - and again.

I cannot promise you all of me. I cannot promise that to our children. I cannot promise you much of anything.

But if you will have me, I can promise that as I march away from you it is not without sharing your heartache. I promise you that every time I break your heart I will be breaking mine. Every time that I cannot answer you I will be protecting you. Whenever you want to call and you have no number to dial I will be wanting to do the same. I will protect everything that we have created together with every fiber of my being while you do the same back at home. I will honor you in everything - every moment that we are apart and every moment that I am with you. I will fight harder and push further knowing that I do so for you. I will see the faces of our children in every life that I protect. And I will carry you with me in everything until my sandy boots once again sit just inside our door.

[Brandiiiiiiii]

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler

[RN Always]

This will piss you off!
Greed - Taking Advantage of the Already Weakened:
http://www.topix.com/forum/indy/TS1K6IF1TMR8H...

[I Am Enzo - The Baker]

Col. Jack Tueller,WW11 veteran and member of the Greatest Generation...
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[Brian_G]

I'm sorry our leadership is putting more women in harms way.

Down on the administration, up with life and victory.

[REDNECK HIPPIE]

Jack A. Quintana
I AM THE WARRIOR POET

I have stood alone against the biting wind,
I have asked for nothing, for I know where my path lies
I expect nothing, for I know my hearts determination
I feel nothing, for I have seen war.

My fingers have run the blade countless times, the length and breadth of it has been etched into my thoughts, my very being.
I know act, and I know the action.
Dancing a with a warriors grace.
Each movement timed and practiced through the years.
Each stroke, each tiny movement has been played out time and time again.

Many years ago I trembled, I wept; I was horrified at what was asked of me.
But time will make each their own.
Each being draws from a base anger, a base being.
We all know the flight, the fear, and the fight.
We share this primal base pool

It’s what has kept us moving forward, to prosper, to dig our nails into life’s existence.
But we forget in the comfort of home of what we are at the roots core… animals.

I have not; I have been trained to keep this, to draw upon it
To keep it as a lover and a partner.

I don’t know different, I don’t know how to release this symbiotic being that clings to me from my past.

I am a warrior, I have seen horrors, I have seen glory, and I have felt my own honor rise in my heart.

You do not know this; you do not know what I am. You do not know how I look at each person and test their mettle.

I am the warrior poet
I have been on the battlefield with gods
I have felt my own friends life flee its mortal coil
I have seen my own blood flow
I know
I know

©Copyright August 30, 2006 by Jack Quintana

[REDNECK HIPPIE]

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Warrior - Disturbed Military Tribute

[Uscgthumper]

An Army Wife's promise ...

I cannot promise that I will not become frustrated when you leave me and the world seems to fall apart around me. I cannot promise that I will not curse those who sent you when the dryer breaks, and the transmission needs to be replaced, and the dog eats the couch all in the same week - most likely the week after you deploy. I cannot promise that the sand and mud that cakes my floor will not cause me to give you harsh looks and rude thoughts. I cannot promise that my heart will not be torn in twelve different ways when you march away from me. I cannot promise that I will not let my anger show when you refuse to answer questions. I cannot promise to understand why you share things with your comrades that you will not share with me. I cannot promise that there won't be times when my heartache makes its presence known before my pride can mask it. I cannot promise that I will not show my worry and my concern when it is best for you not to see it. I cannot promise to understand why you do so many of the things you do.

[Brandiiiiiiii]

“RED, WHITE AND BLUE�– LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Lynyrd Skynyrd is the prototypical Southern rock band. They bleed red, white and blue. We love the lyrics in this song and think they must express perfectly how a lot of military vets feel:

My hair’s turning white,
my neck’s always been red,
my collar’s still blue,
we’ve always been here
just trying to sing the truth to you.
Yes you could say
we’ve always been,
Red, White, and Blue

[Dudedad]

Force Majeure wrote:

Oh yeah. They promise alright .......

I can't recall how many guys got the "Dear John letter" during the year I was in Vietnam. I think the statistics are that only about 10% of the women (or girlfriends) who were "back home" didn't actually find some other guy to share her bed. Of course it must have been about 98% of us who were down at the village getting some 5 dollar "boom-boom".

"An Army Wife's promise" my ass.

Vile... Vulgar.... Vicious.... Bet you were and still are the drain on the party.

[justaguess]

Force Majeure wrote:

<quoted text>
Oh yeah. They promise alright .......
I can't recall how many guys got the "Dear John letter" during the year I was in Vietnam. I think the statistics are that only about 10% of the women (or girlfriends) who were "back home" didn't actually find some other guy to share her bed. Of course it must have been about 98% of us who were down at the village getting some 5 dollar "boom-boom".
"An Army Wife's promise" my ass.

You make me laugh..obviously you have had your azz kicked your whole life, amounted to squat and are here to prove some weird lack of manhood you carry, all you do is try to start a fight. Your lies are pathetic and so are you. My guess is you got a little more than boom boom down at the village and no woman will touch ya now..should have been a little more respectful of yourself back then and as for now..well, look at the respect you are getting here..lol..this little forum in the middle of nowhere and here you beg. Try to at least carry the spit you received upon homecoming with honor..you really are nothing now, much as it appears you were then. Perhaps a few more posts over in the gun thread will pump up your failing masculinity. Soundin' a bit weak over on this thread..

[justaguess]

Force Majeure wrote:

<quoted text>
Guys getting Dear John letters and bouncing Madame Lang down at the village is funny to you, huh jerk wad? Just wait till I tell you about the guy from West Virginia who got scrubbed with a wire brush because he never washed himself .... you should get a big ho-ho out of that.

You don't have to, you just kicked your own azz again, in front of this great big world of topix...lol...do you feel it.?? do you even get it..??...it's small, as small as you have made yourself become..

post some more lyrics..you'll feel better.