20 year plan

Now a broken man is all the world will see. 
Covered in scars and and unable to stand on one good knee. 
No longer do I feel sane. 
Seems my life has been filed against the grain. 

These old bones have been broken. 
And little complaints never spoken. 
With my hearing fading away. 
And the color of my hair a dingy grey. 

My mind seems to wonder. 
The health of my youth I did plunder. 
Only thing that is the same. 
Are the memories that remain. 

Some of these are grand. 
Others are like sifting through sand. 
But all of them I recall. 
All the horrid and glorious things I saw. 

I seen Pearl on her final day. 
And watched the lives of my fellow Marines  blown away.  
A hundred islands and a thousand miles of sand. 
Even captured by the enemy's hand. 

In Saipan saw my buddy dive on a grenade.
In his name a Navy ship was made. 
Stood on the blood stained Iwo Jima sand. 
As the flag was being raised solutes my bloodied hand. 

From day of days.                            (D-day)
Till victory on the end of days.         (VE-day)
I took arms and bleed. 
As shrapnel glanced from my head. 

Seems I'm just over the war. 
Finding myself standing on the Chosin Reservoir. 
That cold still chills me to the bone. 
Out numbered 2-1,and cut off from home. 

The Chinese has us completely surrounded. 
Waves on waves of assaults they pounded. 
The weather claimed lives more. 
Than all the shells on the reservoir. 

Longest 17 days of my life. 
Out of ammo and forced to use a knife. 
We left nothing or no one behind.  
Truer courage you shall never find. 

Now in 61 I get called to the rice field. 
Tore and worn body a Marine will never yield. 
From the "Frozen Chosin" to hot and wet. 
This war is like nothing I've seen yet. 

The Vietcong have tunnels everywhere. 
Pop up at anytime without a care. 
Tunnel rats last only an hour. 
Lost lots of good men Turn my heart sour. 

In the span of twenty years.
 3 wars and a billion tears. 
Banners and parades at the end ww2. 
Hell I was even kissed by a beautiful girl in blue. 

But when we returned from Nam. 
Not even a thank you from Uncle Sam. 
Pelted with hate and anger. 
Words and no action puts the country back in danger. 

I'm an old dog now. 
But you know somehow. 
I'm the saltiest son of a bitch in town. 
So when I die you maggots better not frown. 

Just put me in the ground under a shade tree. 
And say these words over me. 
Piss blood and guts are that of this man. 
20 years of wars was not this Marines plan. 

But I would do it all again. 
For freedom to win. 
Sacrifices are the cost. 
20 years that will never be lost.