A Soldier's Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room
and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My
daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of
white, Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed the magic that was
Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and
surrounded by love I would sleep. In perfect contentment, or so it would
seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near, But I opened my eyes when
it tickled my ear.. Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I
struggled to hear, And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, A lone figure stood,
his face weary and tight. A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up
and smiled, Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear, ”Come in this moment, it’s
freezing out here! Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!” For barely a moment I saw
his eyes shift, Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light Then he sighed and he
said “Its really all right, I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line, That separates you from
the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I’m proud to stand here like my
fathers before me. My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,” Then he
sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.” My dad stood his watch
in the jungles of ‘Nam’, And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while, But my wife sends me
pictures, he’s sure got her smile. Then he bent and he carefully pulled
from his bag, The red, white, and blue… an American flag. I can live
through the cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my
home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I can sleep in a
foxhole with little to eat. I can carry the weight of killing another, Or
lay down my life with my sister and brother.. Who stand at the front
against any and all, To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall..”

” So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright, Your family is waiting
and I’ll be all right.” ”But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast? It seems all too little
for all that you’ve done, For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, ”Just tell us you love us,
and never forget. To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For when we come home, either
standing or dead, To know you remember we fought and we bled. Is payment
enough, and with that we will trust, That we mattered to you as you
mattered to us.”

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people
as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S
service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities.
Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for
us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq