A Soldiers Eyes

© James J Alonzo

Look into a soldiers eyes, and you can see how much war he has seen. You will note the eyes don’t make the soldier look brave, even if he tried. Still. There is something about a soldier who has experienced combat.

The soldier's honor comes from the way they live their lives and the respect they show to each other. They are witnesses of events beyond any non-combatant’s imaginations. The combat soldier has feelings and emotions molded by unthinkable bravery, conditions, and fear.

Some came back with honor, ethics, and acted as Gentlemen should, assimilating into society without too much trouble. Some did not. However, when these same men are all together, facing cold steel, screaming lead, from enemies that want to only kill them, these same soldiers will keep fighting for each other, themselves, their loved ones, and their country.

Some eventually died in the arms of a friend, and some died alone in a muddy rice paddy.

Maybe after coming home, they will eventually die homeless in an alley.  Maybe in a lonely bed, where once they laid next to their loved ones. Some will die alone and miserable, with not one person to visit them. No one to tell them, at the very end, ”I’LL miss you.”

Soon they will be all forgotten. Or were they ever really remembered? Some are remember as the loving person they were, some remembered as that crazy person that lived down the street. Very few will be remembered for what they did for you, me and this country.

They will be remembered as the they came to be afterward. They came to be because nobody tried or could understand the damage done to them by the war. See that thousand yard stare? It’s there in a soldiers eyes.