This poem was written by my Uncle Clyde on his way home from WWII.

"A Long Way From Home"

Long ago and far away,
Like a dream keeps coming back,
Like it happened yesterday,
But I know that's not a fact.

Through the snow of mountains,
And the hot desert sands,
We trudged thru mud,
Of these foreign lands.

On and on we go,
And forever day by day,
The farther we go, the farther we get,
From our home in the U.S.A.

We go out looking for him,
We know he's lying low,
But most of all we do this,
For someone we do not know.

We finally learned to know home,
For his tactics were the same,
And we learned to know just what to do,
As he played his deadly game.

Things didn't always go as planned,
But we could always tell,
When it was too late to turn around,
We were riding into hell.

The saddest part of the battle,
Is when it's over and you see,
Just blank silent spaces,
Where your buddies used to be.

The S.S. troops of Hitler's,
The said was the very best,
But we fought them many times,
And they couldn't stand the best.

As I look upon the enemy dead,
There's a surprised look on their face,
For Hitler had told them,
They were the super race.

Hitler had told them all,
That they would be the ones,
Who would be standing looking down,
After all was said and done.

On and on we keep moving,
Toward the bitter end,
We weren't going to give an inch,
So he would have to bend.

We met some of the people,
They were the enemy I know,
But once you get to know them,
They were just like us, a plain Joe.

Finally we have taken Berchtesgaden,
And in Berchtesgaden alone,
Was a prize to be taken,
But we are farther from home.

We thought of our home town,
In the good old U.S.A.,
So we were going to fight harder,
And make the Germans pay.

Now that the war was winding down,
You could see the end was near,
But nothing can beat the day of surrender
For there wasn't anymore fear.

My last day of fighting,
Was in the Austrian Alps,
They said it would be easy,
But I had my doubts.

We had light armor,
Which was good for this mountain road,
And to free 200 Russian women,
Which was quite a load.

The war was over on this day,
The Germans payed no attention to it,
But they died for what they tried to do,
For they refused to quit.

We made it into Innsbruk,
The girls were the happiest I'd ever met,
They threw a party that night for us,
One that I'll never forget.

They fixed a meal from the officers food,
And plenty of everything to drink,
There was Cognac, Champagne and Vodka,
That really put us in the pink.

Sometime during this eating and drinking,
I passed out like I was dead,
So they took me up in the hotel,
And put me to bed.

Next morning the Captain came up,
And when he told me why he came,
I thought they would have to pick me up,
For I just about passed out again.

He wanted to know,
If I wanted to go home,
I just jumped in the jeep,
And said I'll never more roam.

I was the first to go home,
And as we headed for the rear,
I thought how lucky I was,
Now that I had nothing to fear.

We rode box cars through Germany and France,
All the way to the coast,
To the city of Marseilles,
And some God forsaken post.

This place was in the boonies,
With nothing to do all day,
But wait for our ship to come in,
Down at the bay.

I told my buddy who was with me,
Let's go into Marseilles,
And let the French men know,
That this was the last, But our way.

We went into the city,
And proceeded to make the round,
We tore up a few taverns,
Before they threw us out of town.

Finally, at last, our ship came in,
And we were on our way,
To a place that we used to call home,
In the Good Old U.S.A.

Written by my Uncle, Clyde E. Christmas

Please, Today and Everyday, Thank a Soldier for fighting for our freedoms. Remember our fallen hero's who paid the ultimate price for our Liberties. Forgive but never forget.
Thank you Daddy and Uncle Clyde for doing the right thing during WWII.

Tudy