Stories & Poems About War
A KOREAN CHRISTMAS CAROL......................
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the tent
was the odor of fuel oil - the stovepipe was bent
The shoepacks were hung by the oil stove with care
in hope they'd issue each man a new pair.
the weary GIs were sacked out in their beds,
and vision of sugar-babes danced through their heads,
When up on the ridge there arouse such a clatter
(A Chinese machine gun had started to chatter).
I rushed to my rifle and threw back the bolt,
The rest of my tent-mates awoke with a jolt.
Outside we could hear our Platoon Sergeant Greenlaw,
A hard little man with a little pot belly.
"Come Yancey, Come Vito, Come Cockrill and Watson,
"Up Miller, Up Couser, Up Esler and Olson".
We tumbled outside in a swirl of confusion,
so cold that each man could have used a transfusion.
"Get up on that hilltop and silence that Red.
"And don't come back till you're sure that he's Dead".
Then, putting his thumb up in front of his nose,
Sergeant Greenlaw took leave of us shivering Joes.
But we all heard him say in a voice soft and light:
"Merry Christmas to all -- and may you live through the night."
Author Unknown....................USMC 50/54