Military Lifestyle

Military Sacrifices

The sacrifices our Military make on behalf of us as a Country is tooo great!!!! They give up more than anyone WILL ever know.

Life Challenge: If you know of a Service Member who is struggling reach out your arms today and give them a hug. They "ALL" need it.

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'Twas The Night Before Christmas

This poem was written by a Marine stationed in Okinawa Japan.

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND 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 A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,
JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES
OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,
AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,
A SOBER THOUGHT
CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,
IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,
ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,
SILENT, ALONE,
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR
IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,
THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,
NOT HOW I PICTURED
A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO
OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,
THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES
THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS
WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD,
THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE
A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,
LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER
HOW MANY LAY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE
IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT
BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES
AND STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED
AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,
"SANTA DON'T CRY,
THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,
I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,
MY LIFE IS MY GOD,
MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS."

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER
AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,
I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS,
SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SHIVERED
FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE
ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR
SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,
WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA,
IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE."

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,
AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."

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THIS IS A *MUST READ* ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A LOVED ONE OF RETURNING TROOPS...PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT YOUR'S DOESN'T FEEL THIS WAY; NOT ONE OF THEM COME HOME UNCHANGED.

Landon Steele: (COMBAT MEDIC.)

"I think we are at a turning point. With troop withdrawals and military downsizing we face a homecoming as never before seen and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. For many warfighters we will come home to an empty and unwelcome home, whether that be an actual house, job or country. We have not been fighting a year long tour or a four year campaign, we have been thrust in and out of two different worlds for a decade. A world back home where we are, in the minds of those who knew us before, the person before the wars and the person we have had to become in order to fight deployment after deployment after extended deployment.

I think it’s funny how civilians back home who knew us say that we come home “kind of empty and different”. Not so says I. We have come home heavy. We have come home with an extra person inside of us, a person who can pass out candy to foreign local children one minute and shoot those childrens’ neighbor the next should we have to, loose a brother or sister in our arms a few seconds later and go right back on mission the next day. We come home with that person and no one back home knows how to talk to them. That person inside of us can’t communicate with civilians because we speak a different language. It’s the person who sits on the “TC” side of our girlfriends’ car and says “Clear right” at a stop sign, it’s the person who at Thanksgiving dinner when everyone says Amen at the end of the prayer accidentally replies “Hooah”, the person who doesn’t see a bag of trash on the side of the road as trash but a 155mm shell in a black plastic bag. The person we come home with inside of us walks different, talks different and most assuredly feels different.

Lord knows that “coming home” (if we really ever do) is the hardest battle we have ever fought and many of us simply return to combat as a soldier or like myself as a private contractor because we feel at home in war. The fight to fit in, in the U.S. is a lonely one. In combat I never felt tired or weak for very long because when I was there was a brother to my right and one to my left and their shoulders were broad and strong, we were there for each other. Not so much back home! We come home to a VA health system that most days, as a healthcare provider myself, I think is doing its upmost to kill us and a society of “Occupy Whatever Street” filled with people who have NO clue what it means to occupy anything more or less a hostile country. We are home but the person we brought back with us, the warfighter inside, is not.

Warfighters we have made a huge strategic error. When you were in Basic Training if a TI or DI or Petty Officer or Drill Sergeant ever caught you by yourself what did they ask you? “Hey dummy where is your Battle Buddy?!!” Am I right? Well where are our Battle Buddies? We must be our brothers and sisters keepers. We were losing 18 veterans a day to suicide and with thousands of troops getting out and returning to a world where they feel they have no purpose we must reach out to and sometimes carry our Battles’. We didn’t leave each other behind on the battle fields so it would be a shame to leave each other behind now that we have come home and as long as we have each other it is home."

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Great Resources at your hands:

Below is a link to resources for service members returning home from OEF ~ Afghanistan or OIF ~ Iraq.

This is an extensive list of resources for the service member, family member and the children.

http://dpi.state.wi.us/sspw/pdf/oef_oiffamilyresources.pdf