Vets Coming Home

Songs, Quotes and Poems

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

            ---Abraham Lincoln

"There comes a special moment in everyone's life, a moment for which that person was born.  That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission -- a mission for which he is uniquely qualified.  In that moment, he finds greatness.  It is his finest hour."

             ---Winston Churchill

"All men matter.   You matter.  I matter.  It's the hardest thing in theology to believe."

             ---G. K. Chesterton

"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips."

              ---Oliver Goldsmith

"There are two types of people who never achieve very much in their lifetimes.  One is the person who won't do what he or she is told to do, and the other is the person who does no more than he or she is told to do."

               ---Andrew Carnegie

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

                ---Aristotle

"The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. ... To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something.   Not to be onto something is to be in despair."

            ---Walter Percy,  The Moviegoer

"It is precisely the soul that is the traveler, it is of the soul and of the soul alone that we can say with supreme truth that 'being' necessarily means 'being on the way' (en route)."

            ---Gabriel Marcel,  Homo Visitor

Singin' The Vietnam Talkin' Blues 
Recorded by: Johnny Cash 
Written by: Johnny R. Cash 
Recorded: April 13, 1971 
 
The entire song is spoken 
 
One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife 
We've been everywhere once and some places twice 
As I had another helpin' of country ham 
she said "We haven't never been to Vietnam 
there's a bunch of our boys over there" 
So we went 
 
Well we got a big welcome when we drove in 
Through the gates of a placed named Long Ben 
We checked in and everything got kinda quite 
But a soldier boy said "Just wait til' tonight 
Things get noisy things start happening' 
Big bad firecrackers" 
 
Well that night we did about four shows for the boys 
And they were livin' it up with a whole lot of noise 
We did our last song for the night 
Then we crawled into bed for some peace and quite 
But things weren't peaceful things weren't quite 
Things were scary 
 
Well for a few minutes June hadn't spoken a word 
Then I thought at first she hadn't heard 
Then a shell exploded not two miles away 
She sat up in bed and I heard her say 
"What was that" I said "That was a shell or a bomb" 
She said "John I'm scared" I said "Me too" 
 
Well all night long that noise kept on 
And the noise would chill you right to the bone 
The bullets and the shells and the atomic bombs 
shook our bed and finally fell and it never let up  
It was gonna get worse before it got any better 
 
Well, the sun came up the noise died down 
We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound 
Then a soldier knocked on the door and said 
"Last night we brought in seven dead and fourteen wounded!" 
We were goin' down to the base hospital 
To see the boys Yeah 
 
So we to the hospital day by day 
And of the night we were singin' away 
Then the shells and the bombs again til' dawn 
And the helicopter brought in a wounded man 
night after night day after day 
comin' and a goin' 
 
So we sadly sang for them our last song 
And reluctantly we said so long 
We did our best to let them know that we cared 
for every last one of them over there 
Whether we belonged over there or not Ê 
somebody loves them and needs them 
 
Well now that's about all there is to tell 
about our little trip and the livin' hell 
and if I ever go back over there again 
I hope there's none of our boys to sing for 
I hope this ol' war's over with and they're all back home 
To stay in peace 
 
 

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 Like A Soldier
 Written by Johnny Cash
 Published by Song of Cash Inc. ASCAP

 G
 
             G                  
 With the twilight colors falling
 And the evening laying shadows
                                          D
 Hidden memories come stealing from my mind
 As I feel my own heart beating out
 The simple joy of living
                                G
 I wonder how I ever was that kind

 But the wild road I was rambling
 Was always out there calling
                                               D7
 And they said a hundred times I should have died
 Then you reached down and touched me
 And lifted me up with you
                                                     G
 So, I believe they were roads that I was meant to ride

|              C             D            G
|I'm like a soldier getting over the war 
|          C               D7      G        
|Like a young man getting over his crazy days
|       C               D7              Em 
|Like a bandit getting over his lawless ways
|C                D7               G
|I don't have to do that any more 
|              C             D7         G
|I'm like a soldier getting over the war

 There were nights I don't remember
 And there's pain that I've forgotten
 Other things I choose not to recall
 There are faces that come to me
 In my darkest secret memory
 Faces that I wish would not come back at all
 But in my dreams parade of lovers
 From the other times and places
 There's not one that matters now, no matter who
 I'm just thankful for the journey
 And that I've survived the battles
 And that my spoils of victory are you

|              C             D            G
|I'm like a soldier getting over the war 
|          C               D7      G        
|Like a young man getting over his crazy days
|       C               D7              Em 
|Like a bandit getting over his lawless ways
|C              D7                   G
|Every day gets better than before  
|              C             D7         G
|I'm like a soldier getting over the war

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Thank you Soldier
By Chris Woolnough

Have you stopped to thank a veteran today?
For the price of freedom they had to pay?
Did you gaze into those distant eyes?
Did you see the ghosts he can't deny?
Did you think a soldier's heart was made of steel?
Because he was trained to kill, he couldn't feel?
Did you see the guilt written on his face,
For the loss of life he can't replace?
Did you know he mourns the lives he couldn't save,
And walks with comrades in their grave?
Did you remember the boy with innocence lost?
Do you really know war's ultimate cost?
Have you felt the blast of artillery fire?
Do you have the courage it would require?
Have you stood in trenches consumed with fear?
Felt the enemies breath so very near?
Have you walked with God on a battleground?
Seen your brothers dead or dying all around?
Have you stopped to thank a vet today,
Or did you just turn and walk away?
From the pain he'll carry for the rest of his life,
Did you consider his family, his children, his wife?
That watch him suffer in silence each and every day,
As he's haunted by memories that don't go away?
Did you care that the soldier is still pulling guard?
That his heart, mind, and soul will forever be scarred?
Do you know how he suffers from ptsd?
Or that our precious freedom is never free?
Do you care that he still hears the blood curdling screams?
Or that he returns to the war each night in his dreams?
Have you felt the sorrow of a combat vet?
Or would you rather just forget?
That war has pierced his hardened heart,
And torn this soldier all apart?
Would you rather our heroes just fade away?
Or will you stop to thank a vet today?


Please visit Chris Woolnough's online community at The Aftermath of War, Coping with PTSD. You'll find "a safe haven of support for those whose battles live on in The Aftermath of War." Thank you, Chris, for sharing your poetry with us and extending your services to so many appreciative people over the years.

And view more poems at PTSD Combat:
P.T.S.D. Love Poem by Sarge Lintecum
To My Lover by leftvet

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(more to come)