Young Soldier

I was a boy not quit seventeen, I enlisted when I was sixteen… Wanting to serve my country… I had no family it was just my sister and me… My mother had died, when I was very young, new family adopted me… My sister was also adopted, by another family… As you can see, it was just my sister and me… It wasn’t long before my adopted family, first my new father died then my new mother, followed him… She missed him so much, for she had a broken heart, that wouldn’t mend … I went to war as a little boy, came home a man… As you see I was just sixteen… The time was at “Chaute Thierry”, doing world war one… As a young man I thought we won… Standing behind a cannon as it was fired, shell casing discharging from the breach, sent hot shrapnel and pain into my foot… Sent me to hospital where I laid in pain, until they treated me, sent me home, with crippled foot, shrapnel of imbedded in my foot, as well as the pain in my foot… I’ve never been able NOT to work, even though I have shrapnel in my foot, walk with a limp, and have pain in my foot everyday… Now you can see, that it didn’t keep me from work… Though I was wounded during war, no purple heart was given this boy a young soldier… Wasn’t until my son wrote our Congressman, explaining what had happen, and what hadn’t been done… Took over fifty years, but I got my purple heart, thanks to my son for what he done… I would have gone to my grave, for I wouldn’t have said anything, as I hadn’t for years, for I thought it was their job, to recognize what I had done… My family was proud, of what I’d done, but I feel, that they were more proud of me now… Only told my story a few times, mostly to a few close friends, and my children, for it was part of history… Now you know my story, the young soldier, just boy… By Sandra L. Hoban ©2006 This poem was written and dedicated to my father who served as an infantry soldier during World War I. This is also dedicated to all those who have served our country and was wounded or lost there life while serving, not just World War I but all wars, conflicts and military police actions.