The American Soldier

     I am a whisper on the wind, of times past, of places long forgotten, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Bataan, Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Seoul, Laos, Saigon, Cambodia, Kuwait. Iraq, Afghanistan. I am the heart of countless numbers of scarred and maimed American veterans, and the soul of the buried unknowns.

     I am an integral part of each white cross in Flanders Field, and I am sealed within each name on 'The Wall'. I am part of each and every headstone of every American soldier in every cemetery around the world.
     I am deeply enmeshed in each tiny undiscovered bone fragment of American soldiers, left behind on foreign soil. I am the unseen shadows, the unheard voices in those many empty cells that once held my brothers in unspeakable torture.

     I am the unbearable pain in the hearts of every mother, father, wife, husband, brother sister, and child, of missing American soldiers from all wars. I am within each and every teardrop shed by these family members for their unaccounted for loved ones.

 
     I am the essence of each and every drop of blood shed in the past or in the future, by an American soldier in the name of freedom. I am the lifeblood of the colors of the American flag, blue for my loyalty and unwavering dedication, white for my steadfastness, and red for my pride and love of country.

     I am the spirit of those names on the black Granite Wall, of all those unaccounted for in every war, of those who went away to war as gallant young men and came back, older than time...OR NOT AT ALL.