A Ranger's Prayer
I pray that I need never teach
Our son how to take a beach.
Where obstacles and mines abound
And bullets patter all around.
I pray that he need never face
Machine gun fire from a hidden place
With artillery churning up the sand
And smoke obscuring all the land.
I pray that he need not perspire
From the heat of an LSI on fire,
Or see an LCA go down
While some men swim, and some men drown.
I pray that he need not dig in
To escape the shells that search for him.
Or, sprinting across a hedgerow's gap,
Midway, feel a bullet's slap.
I pray that he may see the sky
Without barrage balloons riding high.
Or hear a whistle somewhere round
Without dropping to the ground.
I pray that he need never hear
The whistle of bombs that fall too near.
Then lie beneath the rain of stones
That crush men's flesh and smash men's bones.
I pray that he need never roam
O'er land and sea so far from home.
But laugh and love and take a wife
To love and cherish all his life.
----- Victor J. 'Baseplate' Miller
LINKS
Back to Biography of Victor J. "Baseplate" Miller
Back To Justin Oral History, Armed Services Fine Art Collection
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