Soldier boy.
Young Johnnie waiting to go home.(1992 photo)
(The Soldier who refuse to kill was released. He is a hero to me. You must stand for something. He did. )
Soldier boy.
A father told me.
His son is having problems. All done with Army training.
In a meeting.
Old Sgt. asked the boy. Would he kill?
He told them he won’t kill.
I told the father of my time when I was told I was going to Iraq.
15 soldiers were getting orders.
Half of the men and woman went to tears.
I was happy because I joined to go to Iraq.
The young soldiers realized.
When the old Sgt.. told them.
Soon their innocent eyes and mind would change.
The father asked would the chaplain help?
I told him I doubt it.
All soldiers have fear of death
and killing of another human being.
I told him of Sgt. York.
A man of great beliefs and fate.
He went on and did what soldier had to do.
He was a hero.
He saved many lives.
I felt more sadness than the father.
I saw the damage done to men and woman.
The eyes changed when you live in fear and must kill.
You never come back the same person.
A silence overtakes the conservation.
What words do you say to a man when his son is going to war?
When I got on the plane in Kingsport, Virginia to go to Iraq in 1991.
My father of two wars had tears in his eyes as I left for New Jersey to be prep for war.
I had a Uncle in Virginia. The morning I was leaving for Iraq. He wanted to take me out to breakfast. He told me. I wanted to talk to you. I may never see you again and with tears in his eyes he told me. “Many families members never return from the old wars and he was proud of me. ”
My father knew his son was leaving for a combat zone.
To become a man like he did at eighteen years old.
Soldier boys go to war.
Soldier men come home with too much knowledge of death and suffering.
Pray for the soldiers,
pray for peace,
pray for the day when your soldier
arrived home safe and sound.
Cried and pray for the families who soldiers who come home wrapped in a USA
flag. Freedom is free. Sometime can cost everything.
COYOTE