Memorial Day is fast approaching when we honor our military who died protecting our homeland. It is especially important to me as my family has served and lost family members. I am a Vietnam veteran. I wrote this tribute defending our flag and our country.
She’s Old Glory, she’s the symbol of our country, the flag of our nation. She is dipped to no king or man, she is held upright, proud, her banner can never touch the ground. She is bugled up in the morning at revelry, and down in the evening with taps.
She, a wonderful history. She crossed the Delaware with George Washington. She has flown over Fort McHenry, Old Ironsides and was with John Paul Jones when he had “not yet begun to fight.” She went to Tripoli, was bloodied at Gettysburg and honored Lincoln’s casket. She was at the Halls of Montezuma, flew above the battleship “Maine” in the Havana Harbor. She went to Europe with Black Jack Pershing, Eddie Rickenbacker and was with the marines at Bella Wood.
She was blown off her staff at Pearl Harbor, trampled into the ground at Corregidor, and went down with the carrier “Yorktown” at the Battle of Midway.
She was down, but she came back! Oh, how she came back, and with a vengeance! She went ashore on D-Day, flew in the sky with the Eighth Air Force in Europe, on the ground with Patton’s Third Armored, the Red Ball Express and the 442nd in Italy.
She made it all the way back to Corregidor via the Solomons, Tarawa, Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Coral Sea to Tokyo Bay with the battleship “Missouri.”
She did her duty in Korea with the 40th Armored. In Vietnam, it was the First Air Cavalry, Green Berets and Special Forces. She went to the Gulf when’s she was needed and came home with honor!
She’s Old Glory, the symbol of my country, the flag of my nation. She’s to be admired, respected and honored! She’s never to be treated with disrespect, trampled or burned by any American for any reason. Especially when I am around to honor her and protect her as she has protected me! She’s my flag, she’s Old Glory.
Sergeant E-5 Thomas N. Bates
First Squadron 18th Armored Cavalry