Thank You For Your Service
Thank You For Your Service
“Thank you for your service."
How many times have I heard that.
Do they know or understand?
Do they really care?
I fought at Bloody Antietam,
Shiloh, Gettysburg and Franklin.
Blue and gray, makes no difference.
Casualties measured by the thousands.
I fought at Belleau Woods and Meuse-Argonne.
Mud filled trenches stinking with filth.
Mustard gas stinging eyes, burning lungs.
The war to end all wars till the next one.
I landed at Normandy, fought at terrible
Tarawa, Tinian and Okinawa, Sicily and
too many other places to name.
Freeing the world from tyrants.
I fought at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon Landing
And retreated from Frozen Chosin.
Saving the Koreans from themselves.
Prelude to the next civil war.
I fought at the Ia Drang, Hamburger Hill
Khe San and An Loc.
Saw the horror of My Lai
Why were we there?
I have been fighting for twenty years
In the hell of Iraq
and Afghanistan saving the world from
terrorism.
Do they see the dead?
Bodies piled upon bodies
mutilated beyond recognition and
rotting in the heat and sun.
Do they see the Gold Star Families
who lost so much but gained so little.
Some lucky enough to have coffins.
Others never returned.
Do they see the physically wounded?
Legs, arms, hands,eyes gone.
Skin burned and scarred.
After effects linger for years.
Do they see the wounded in spirit?
Marriages destroyed. Alcoholism,
suicide, drug addiction.
Nightmares as constant companions.
The shakes in the Civil War.
Shell shock in the Great War.
Two-thousand yard stare in WWII.
PTSD from ‘Nam to the present.
Do they visit V.A’s,
give to the Wounded Warriors or
support the USO.
Do they really care or are the words:
“Thank you for your service”
just a passing fad.
Copyright © Oliver Mckeithan | Year Posted 2025
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