Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
\nIn a one bedroom house made of plaster & stone.
\nI had come down the chimney with presents to give
\nAnd to see just who in this home did live.<\/p>\n
I looked all about a strange sight I did see,
\nNo tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.
\nNo stocking by the fire, just boots filled with sand,
\nOn the wall hung pictures of far distant lands.<\/p>\n
With medals and badges, awards of all kind
\nA sober thought came through my mind.
\nFor this house was different, so dark and dreary,
\nI knew I had found the home of a soldier, once I could see clearly.<\/p>\n
I heard stories about them, I had to see more
\nSo I walked down the hall and pushed open the door.
\nAnd there he lay sleeping silent alone,
\nCurled up on the floor in his one bedroom home.<\/p>\n
His face so gentle, his room in such disorder,
\nNot how I pictured a United States soldier.
\nWas this the hero of whom I’d just read?
\nCurled up in his poncho, a floor for his bed?<\/p>\n
His head was clean shaven, his weathered face tan,
\nI soon understood this was more than a man.
\nFor I realized the families that I saw that night
\nOwed their lives to these men who were willing to fight.<\/p>\n
Soon `round the world, the children would play,
\nAnd grownups would celebrate on a bright Christmas day.
\nThey all enjoyed freedom each month of the year,
\nBecause of soldiers like this one lying here.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u00b4t help wonder how many lay alone
\nOn a cold Christmas Eve in a land far from home.
\nJust the very thought brought a tear to my eye,
\nI dropped to my knees and started to cry.<\/p>\n
The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice,
\n“Santa don\u00b4t cry, this life is my choice;
\nI fight for freedom, I don\u00b4t ask for more,
\nmy life is my God, my country, my Corps.”<\/p>\n
With that he rolled over and drifted off into sleep,
\nI couldn\u00b4t control it, I continued to weep.
\nI watched him for hours, so silent and still,
\nI noticed he shivered from the cold night\u00b4s chill.<\/p>\n
So I took off my jacket, the one made of red,
\nAnd I covered this Soldier from his toes to his head.
\nAnd I put on his T-shirt of gray and black,
\nWith an eagle and an Army patch embroidered on back.<\/p>\n
And although it barely fit me, I began to swell with pride,
\nAnd for a shining moment, I was United States Army deep inside.
\nI didn\u00b4t want to leave him on that cold dark night,
\nThis guardian of honor so willing to fight.<\/p>\n
Then the soldier rolled over, whispered with a voice so clean and pure,
\n“Carry on Santa, it’s Christmas Day, all is secure.”
\nOne look at my watch, and I knew he was right,
\nMerry Christmas my friend, and to all a good night!<\/p>\n
Footnote: I wrote this poem for Christmas Eve 1993 while assigned to US Forces Korea – Lt Col Bruce W. Lovely, USAF (Printed in the Fort Leavenworth Lamp, 1995). With Apologies to Clement Moore Who First Wrote the Story for His Children in 1822 also credit given to M\/Sgt Noah Brazos Ross, RA18033195, a US Army 18th Field Artillery survivor of Utah Beach, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Battle for the Ardennes, Deutschland wrote “Daddy’s Christmas” (Soldier’s Christmas)” as a Bonita, Montague County, Texas, high school exercise in 1937).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone, In a one bedroom house made of plaster & stone. I had come down the chimney with presents to give And to see just who in this home did live. I looked all about a strange sight I did see, No tinsel, no presents, not even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[524,53,403,777,150,364,776,112,153,408,63,680,774,778,775],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quote","tag-army","tag-beach","tag-christmas","tag-clement-moore","tag-freedom","tag-friends","tag-guardian","tag-heroes","tag-honor","tag-jesus-christ","tag-life","tag-love","tag-lt-col-bruce-lovely","tag-msgt-noah-brazos-ross","tag-santa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2523,"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/2523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ironwil.net\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}