You're one year out of high school
Already serving a year in the Washington National guard
Good job, good pay, building Boeing planes
You're younger sister four years old you,love her
The Marines need a few proud men
No one in your family has ever been a soldier
You build up courage to tell Mom,
"Mom, I'm joining the Marines!"
Expecting Resistance, Mom says she's proud
"I'm going to be in the Sub Marine corps!"
"Son, at six foot three you are too tall!"
They wanted a few good men and not you
Off we go into the wild blue yonder!
But not you, you are deaf in one ear
Doc says, "To fly you are not hearing things clear!"
No one in you're family has ever served his country
No way could they say you could not serve
You can serve--working as a medic in emergency room
One year later in another country far from home
Thirty miles from the DMZ and North Korea
The road in front of you torn up by bullets
You are surrounded by armed men, scared
You made it home and made it home alive
This memorial is for those who did not make it home
Those that were just as afraid as you
It is not for the love poet--for the veterans
Those who did not come home, the you was me!
So on Memorial day bow your heads as I will
Salute the flag not just because of a baseball game
A veteran salutes the flag every time it passes
Not just at concerts, parades or ballgames
You can recognize them by the tearful salute
For like me they remember a friend who did not
come back home except in a flag covered casket
These are the heroes we salute Memorial day
Thank you Lee, my friend, my buddy,for going
to Viet Nam when you had already served your
country in Korea. A true Patriot, just a boy
like me, scared and a long way from home. I
might add, a much better poet, song writer
and a man who loved his country a long way from home
