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From this war-tested Garland of Brothers, that once forged a fiery and lasting bond in Vietnam's fields of war, once again came full circle, at Louisville, Kentucky, in 2006. And now, tomorrow, June 3, we meet again in Killeen, Texas, Fort Hood.
Once we rode to battle as brothers-in-arms on the cusp of life and death, before years and times divided our armed and dangerous band asunder. Now arm-in-arm, we were once more brought together in everlasting reunion. After almost forty years, we old soldiers, we foxhole buddies, once again will reignite bonds of fealty. Some of us are grayer, hopefully wiser now, but always we are faithful to our proud allegiance to one another, in times that tried men's soul...
Thanks again Nancy Meek, for this touching graphic...
Song playing on website: Momma Cass, "Dream a Little Dream of Me."
Song playing here: Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy
Full Circle
by Gary Jacobson © 2006
There in the twilight dim
I saw them...
Snyder, Schmeckpeper, Camarillo, Powell, Schaaff, Judd,
Old war eagles I’d shared a foxhole with in time’s absurd
These old warriors grim of countenance
Troopers from history’s shadowed moments godless
Had together faced the specter of death with single purpose
With lingering fear of death’s enfolding night anomalous.
I see them through tear-streaked eyes of joyous elation
My Brothers-in-arms, the cream of the crop of our generation
Embracing them, the best and finest men in American creation.
Men who fought the good fight with steely nerve
Who simply stepped forward when called to serve
Foregoing fanfare or accolade, from youth’s carefree grace
To tough out horrible war in that bloodstained place.
These courageous men know well the words, bravery, honor, duty
For every day they lived them, in Herculean dignity.
These old soldiers now come full circle
Since that incursion on youthful innocence by war’s debacle
Since fighting with good chance of dying for our rich uncle
Battling through vicious times with warrior brawn and muscle
Princes torn from the flower of youth’s essence
Painfully dealing with vile war’s arrogance
Who rode the cusp of hatred on demon beasts of steel egregious
Now escaped from long ago violence held in war’s iron grasp tedious.
It’s a miracle! We have come full circle!
Now these smiling olden warriors ingenuous
Comrades still held in the wake of cruel war, bore gentleness
Old troopers calmly beaming with smiling warmth of reuniting
Peaceful moments shining in their eyes from reunion’s healing.
Our duty now but to share with the world what we’ve learned
Times when the school of war our very future turned
Tell this generation of the fruits of war which in our heart once burned.
Oh yes, we have come full circle
Back-to-back yet again in life’s great cycle
Torn once from the naïveté of youth, become war-hardened men
Men who still remember too well where they’ve been
What they’ve done with gung-ho hate to quell the wily foe
Walking the rim twixt life and death klick-by-klick did go
Sweat coursing down faces in dirty rivulets
Dodging snipers, booby traps, agent orange, napalm, wicked bullets.
We old soldiers had come full circle
Our welcome-home rendezvous so surreal, yet so natural
Mid troubled minds, peace had came to stay
So right ~ traumatic stresses of forty years melting away...
Giving remembrance always with honored reverence,
To those who in times sparked with war’s ambivalence
Gave their all in honored devotion of sacrifice
Men who for the country loved more than life ... gave that life.
We old soldiers had come full circle
Galled fears and guilt still clinging to souls like a barnacle
Still riding those horses of steel every morning...
We laughed and talked into wee hours of a new morning
Once again finding in each other’s closeness a healing
Tears dismissing, laughter prevailing
Our old infantry hearts filling
Shucking clinging demon’s from cruel war in our souls biding.
For we old troopers had come full circle
No more to hide in closeted cubicle
For we stand proud in the light of a new day risen
Having slipped the bonds of war’s dark prison
Torn off the cocoon a weary war yields
by Gary Jacobson © 2006
There in the twilight dim
I saw them...
Snyder, Schmeckpeper, Camarillo, Powell, Schaaff, Judd,
Old war eagles I’d shared a foxhole with in time’s absurd
These old warriors grim of countenance
Troopers from history’s shadowed moments godless
Had together faced the specter of death with single purpose
With lingering fear of death’s enfolding night anomalous.
I see them through tear-streaked eyes of joyous elation
My Brothers-in-arms, the cream of the crop of our generation
Embracing them, the best and finest men in American creation.
Men who fought the good fight with steely nerve
Who simply stepped forward when called to serve
Foregoing fanfare or accolade, from youth’s carefree grace
To tough out horrible war in that bloodstained place.
These courageous men know well the words, bravery, honor, duty
For every day they lived them, in Herculean dignity.
These old soldiers now come full circle
Since that incursion on youthful innocence by war’s debacle
Since fighting with good chance of dying for our rich uncle
Battling through vicious times with warrior brawn and muscle
Princes torn from the flower of youth’s essence
Painfully dealing with vile war’s arrogance
Who rode the cusp of hatred on demon beasts of steel egregious
Now escaped from long ago violence held in war’s iron grasp tedious.
It’s a miracle! We have come full circle!
Now these smiling olden warriors ingenuous
Comrades still held in the wake of cruel war, bore gentleness
Old troopers calmly beaming with smiling warmth of reuniting
Peaceful moments shining in their eyes from reunion’s healing.
Our duty now but to share with the world what we’ve learned
Times when the school of war our very future turned
Tell this generation of the fruits of war which in our heart once burned.
Oh yes, we have come full circle
Back-to-back yet again in life’s great cycle
Torn once from the naïveté of youth, become war-hardened men
Men who still remember too well where they’ve been
What they’ve done with gung-ho hate to quell the wily foe
Walking the rim twixt life and death klick-by-klick did go
Sweat coursing down faces in dirty rivulets
Dodging snipers, booby traps, agent orange, napalm, wicked bullets.
We old soldiers had come full circle
Our welcome-home rendezvous so surreal, yet so natural
Mid troubled minds, peace had came to stay
So right ~ traumatic stresses of forty years melting away...
Giving remembrance always with honored reverence,
To those who in times sparked with war’s ambivalence
Gave their all in honored devotion of sacrifice
Men who for the country loved more than life ... gave that life.
We old soldiers had come full circle
Galled fears and guilt still clinging to souls like a barnacle
Still riding those horses of steel every morning...
We laughed and talked into wee hours of a new morning
Once again finding in each other’s closeness a healing
Tears dismissing, laughter prevailing
Our old infantry hearts filling
Shucking clinging demon’s from cruel war in our souls biding.
For we old troopers had come full circle
No more to hide in closeted cubicle
For we stand proud in the light of a new day risen
Having slipped the bonds of war’s dark prison
Torn off the cocoon a weary war yields
Ripped from foggy old battlefields this welcome home wields
Unshackled joy from erstwhile bloody war’s strife
Rejoicing in celebration our present life.
Old soldiers had come full circle
From that time we reaped the whirlwind and torment’s cycle.
I saw the healing with my eyes.
I felt the healing in old soldier’s heartened reprise
Still fresh from times-that-try-men's-soul
Touched by camaraderie of warrior-brothers that console
Forged once never to be broken ... fire-wrought bond
Gaining a measure of peace, as on a golden pond.
Unshackled joy from erstwhile bloody war’s strife
Rejoicing in celebration our present life.
Old soldiers had come full circle
From that time we reaped the whirlwind and torment’s cycle.
I saw the healing with my eyes.
I felt the healing in old soldier’s heartened reprise
Still fresh from times-that-try-men's-soul
Touched by camaraderie of warrior-brothers that console
Forged once never to be broken ... fire-wrought bond
Gaining a measure of peace, as on a golden pond.
I would appreciate your vote for "Vietnam Picture Tour!" as a "Top Military Site," at "Veterans Topsites." Just Click this link to vote: http://www.worldwidetopsites.com/php/in.php?id=knights
Vietnam Picture Tour is presently in 2nd place on "Military Topsites," due to your efforts ... so whether you vote once, every day, or now and then...I sincerely Thank You!
Vietnam Picture Tour is presently in 2nd place on "Military Topsites," due to your efforts ... so whether you vote once, every day, or now and then...I sincerely Thank You!
Announcing my book of Vietnam poems ...
"My Thousand Yard Stare."
With over two hundred full color pictures, with beaucoup poems
in this book of my most popular poetry.
Buy the book at this link http://namtour.com/marketplace.html
through the convenience of PayPal,
or your choice of credit cards.
purchase directly, and have it signed @:
Gary Jacobson, 6325 south Old Hwy 191, Malad, Idaho 83252
Price is $20 +postage $6 = total $26 USA dollars.
Just A Walk In The Park
A novel packed with beaucoup memoirs, facts blended with fiction, all happening to myself, or soldiers just over the hill ... with 150 color pictures of Nam combat. These were times that defined men's souls; times that set the foundation and tenor for all life to come, eternally affecting our FOREVER, as well as generations of lives surrounding our life. Vietnam
This book will thrill you with heart-stopping action, fear and danger ... death floating in sweet-and-sour air ... but then, you don't want to live forever, do you?
Please, this is not spam! If for any reason you do not wish to receive further "Vietnam Picture Tour," updates...simply return this email with the word "STOP" in the subject line...and IT WILL stop. I have no wish to send my poetic updates to those who do not wish to receive them. Please include the email address in which you received this mailing so I have it to remove ... and I guarantee I will promptly remove that address from the mailing list, with no hard feelings.
Webmaster of "Vietnam Picture Tour," http://namtour.com/namtour.html A walk in "the park" grunts called Vietnam, with the 1st Air Cavalry on combat patrol. Experience chilling reality to leave the sweet and sour taste of "the Nam" pungent on your tongue, the smell of "the Nam" acrid in your nostrils, and textures of "the Nam" imbedded in you as though you walked beside me in combat. The pictures in "Vietnam Picture Tour" are mine, taken as I walked in the killing fields of Nam. I served with B Co 2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry '66 - '67, as a combat infantryman ... we called ourselves "Grunts," operating out of LZ Betty near beautiful downtown Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Mine was the same unit as depicted in the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," only one year later. Vietnam changed us all indelibly and forever. I'm now on 100% disability rating with an extra hole in my head, covered by a 3X4 inch plate, shrapnel the size of a quarter imbedded three inches into my brain...this all compliments of a trip wire booby trap that triggered a grenade, that in turn detonated an artillery round...and in the process completely ruined my whole day...April, 22, 1967, in the boonies near Phan Rang, Vietnam.
My poignant poem directory, pictures and artwork show the essence and feeling of war on young "boys next door." http://namtour.com/nampoemsNpix.html
"Realm Of Poetry," Poems of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, Golden Oldies, comedy, Fantasy Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies, and comedy ...
My poignant poem directory, pictures and artwork show the essence and feeling of war on young "boys next door." http://namtour.com/nampoemsNpix.html
"Realm Of Poetry," Poems of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, Golden Oldies, comedy, Fantasy Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies, and comedy ...
this also links to my other site of riding that carnivore
That bestial ogre called war ...
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