Australian Soldier

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:33 am

I received this as an email today.

Could be any soldier,not only an Aussie one

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,HE LIVED ALL ALONE,IN A ONE BEDROOM

HOUSE, MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY,WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,AND TO SEE JUST WHO,IN

THIS HOME, DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE, NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,NOT

EVEN A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,ON THE WALL HUNG

PICTURES,OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,A SOBER THOUGHT,CAME THROUGH

MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,I FOUND THE HOME OF

A SOLDIER,ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,SILENT, ALONE,CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR,IN THIS

ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,THE ROOM IN DISORDER,NOT HOW I PICTURED,AN

AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO, OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE

FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES,THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE

SOLDIERS,WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY AND GROWNUPS WOULD

CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS

LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER HOW MANY LAY ALONE,ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A

LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE, I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND

STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED, AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE, "SANTA DON'T CRY, THIS

LIFE IS MY CHOICE; I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON'T ASK FOR MORE, MY LIFE IS

MY GOD, MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS."

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP, I COULDN'T CONTROL IT, I

CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL, AND WE BOTH SHIVERED FROM

THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT, THIS GUARDIAN OF

HONOR SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE WHISPERED,

"CARRY ON SANTA,IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE."

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT."MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND

AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT

"This poem was written by an Australian Peacekeeping soldier stationed

overseas. The following is his request. I think it is reasonable PLEASE.

Would you do me the kind favour of sending this to as many people as you

can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to all of the

service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities.

Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make

people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed

themselvesfor us. Please, do your small part to plant this small seed.

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:22 am

Nice one, MrsK !!! Thankyou for posting that.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:45 am

Very sad but lovely. :-4

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:04 am

mrsK;738579 wrote: This poem was written by an Australian Peacekeeping soldier stationed overseas.James M. Schmidt sure gets around, doesn't he. He seems to have served everywhere except the Whampoa Military Academy and the Spetsnaz GRU.

I'm not criticizing, I just think the real stories are generally more interesting. The paragraph about where the poem came from is at http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/showp ... ostcount=6

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:32 am

spot;738643 wrote: James M. Schmidt sure gets around, doesn't he. He seems to have served everywhere except the Whampoa Military Academy and the Spetsnaz GRU.

I'm not criticizing, I just think the real stories are generally more interesting. The paragraph about where the poem came from is at http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/showp ... ostcount=6

The Whampoa Military Academy? Is that where Willy Wonka had his Oompa loompa's trained?:wah:

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:34 am

Sun Yat Sen and the Kuomintang Staff College would take a severe view of such disrespect, mate. Fortunately for you they're not reading the thread.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:40 am

spot;738752 wrote: Sun Yat Sen and the Kuomintang Staff College would take a severe view of such disrespect, mate. Fortunately for you they're not reading the thread.
I assume you are suggesting that the Oompa Loompa's were trained elswhere?:D

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:04 am

You're thinking of the UK version of the novel in which Loompaland is in "the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before". The US release could only cope with golden-brown haired rosy-white skinned Oompa Loompas and Loompaland was consequently relocated to the Pacific, where it naturally became a mercenary recruiting ground for the First CCP-KMT United Front operating out of Guangzhou. A crack brigade of Oompa Loompas covered the final retreat to Taiwan in 1949 after which they went to work in Hollywood for more money and better hours.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:14 am

spot;738760 wrote: You're thinking of the UK version of the novel in which Loompaland is in "the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before". The US release could only cope with golden-brown haired rosy-white skinned Oompa Loompas and Loompaland was consequently relocated to the Pacific, where it naturally became a mercenary recruiting ground for the First CCP-KMT United Front operating out of Guangzhou. A crack brigade of Oompa Loompas covered the final retreat to Taiwan in 1949 after which they went to work in Hollywood for more money and better hours.
Thanks for clearing that up Spot. I was too busy to do the research.:wah:

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:16 pm

I liked it so that is good enough for me:-6

Doesn't matter where it originated it was a good email.:-6

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:25 pm

But you've done two things, one of which I mind more than the other.

You've taken something which belongs to someone. I don't mind that particularly because I don't think he's been made to suffer a loss in the process.

You've taken his right to be identified as the author of the piece which I mind far more. You've stripped him of his authorship and attributed his work as being that of someone else. That I mind far more. James M. Schmidt wrote the poem in December 1986, he deserves to be credited with his own work.

Snooze · Post by **Snooze** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:50 pm

So are you suggesting we go on a fact finding mission before daring to post anything here?

Besides, we've got you to set us straight.:rolleyes:

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:10 pm

spot;738963 wrote: But you've done two things, one of which I mind more than the other.

You've taken something which belongs to someone. I don't mind that particularly because I don't think he's been made to suffer a loss in the process.

You've taken his right to be identified as the author of the piece which I mind far more. You've stripped him of his authorship and attributed his work as being that of someone else. That I mind far more. James M. Schmidt wrote the poem in December 1986, he deserves to be credited with his own work.

:-6:-6

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:10 pm

Snooze;738975 wrote: So are you suggesting we go on a fact finding mission before daring to post anything here?That depends on whether you wrote the post yourself. Once you're into copying text from elsewhere I think you have a duty to attribute it correctly.

Snooze · Post by **Snooze** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:15 pm

What if you attribute it to an email you received that you liked and wanted to share? How much research then?

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:19 pm

How long do you think it takes to google a line of a poem, or a mass-copied email generally if it comes to that, to see how widespread it is and what alternative attributions exist? Half a minute? And if there's a difference of opinion, how hard is it to find the right attribution? Why would anyone just not care enough to take such an elementary step? Do you not even have the slightest interest in the actual provenance of what's obviously someone's creative endeavour?

Snooze · Post by **Snooze** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:22 pm

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:24 pm

That, if you'll pardon my saying so, is a somewhat meaningless observation on what I felt was a well-considered reply.

Snooze · Post by **Snooze** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:29 pm

That, if you'll pardon my saying so, is my attempt at trying to dodge what I perceive as baiting.

:-6

Post by **spot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:32 pm

Who's baiting whom? I thought I was in this thread before you and it's my action we're discussing, one which relates more to elementary courtesy than to "research".

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:19 pm

The Last Parade

AB Paterson

With never a sound of trumpet,

With never a flag displayed,

The last of the old campaigners

Lined up for the last parade.

Weary they were and battered,

Shoeless, and knocked about;

From under their ragged forelocks

Their hungry eyes looked out.

And they watched as the old commander

Read out, to the cheering men,

The Nation's thanks and the orders

To carry them home again.

And the last of the old campaigners,

Sinewy, lean, and spare --

He spoke for his hungry comrades:

`Have we not done our share?

`Starving and tired and thirsty

We limped on the blazing plain;

And after a long night's picket

You saddled us up again.

`We froze on the wind-swept kopjes

When the frost lay snowy-white.

Never a halt in the daytime,

Never a rest at night!

`We knew when the rifles rattled

From the hillside bare and brown,

And over our weary shoulders

We felt warm blood run down,

`As we turned for the stretching gallop,

Crushed to the earth with weight;

But we carried our riders through it --

Carried them p'raps too late.

`Steel! We were steel to stand it --

We that have lasted through,

We that are old campaigners

Pitiful, poor, and few.

`Over the sea you brought us,

Over the leagues of foam:

Now we have served you fairly

Will you not take us home?

`Home to the Hunter River,

To the flats where the lucerne grows;

Home where the Murrumbidgee

Runs white with the melted snows.

`This is a small thing surely!

Will not you give command

That the last of the old campaigners

Go back to their native land?'

. . . . .

They looked at the grim commander,

But never a sign he made.

`Dismiss!' and the old campaigners

Moved off from their last parade.

Snooze · Post by **Snooze** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:22 pm

I need to watch "Gallipoli" again. :-1

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:27 pm

My grandfather survived Gallipoli!! Having put up his age to enlist. An original ANZAC. I have his medals.

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:16 pm

AussiePam;739676 wrote: My grandfather survived Gallipoli!! Having put up his age to enlist. An original ANZAC. I have his medals.

WOW! He did well to survive Gallipoli.

I often watch that movie & have a cry,what a waste.

Keep those medals safe AP:-6

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:20 pm

"We're All Australians Now"

AB Paterson

Australia takes her pen in hand

To write a line to you,

To let you fellows understand

How proud we are of you.

From shearing shed and cattle run,

From Broome to Hobson's Bay,

Each native-born Australian son

Stands straighter up today.

The man who used to "hump his drum",

On far-out Queensland runs

Is fighting side by side with some

Tasmanian farmer's sons.

The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar

To grimly stand the test,

Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,

With miners from the west.

The old state jealousies of yore

Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,

We're not State children any more --

We're all Australians now!

Our six-starred flag that used to fly

Half-shyly to the breeze,

Unknown where older nations ply

Their trade on foreign seas,

Flies out to meet the morning blue

With Vict'ry at the prow;

For that's the flag the Sydney flew,

The wide seas know it now!

The mettle that a race can show

Is proved with shot and steel,

And now we know what nations know

And feel what nations feel.

The honoured graves beneath the crest

Of Gaba Tepe hill

May hold our bravest and our best,

But we have brave men still.

With all our petty quarrels done,

Dissensions overthrown,

We have, through what you boys have done,

A history of our own.

Our old world diff'rences are dead,

Like weeds beneath the plough,

For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,

They're all Australians now!

So now we'll toast the Third Brigade

That led Australia's van,

For never shall their glory fade

In minds Australian.

Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,

Till right and justice reign.

Fight on, fight on, till Victory

Shall send you home again.

And with Australia's flag shall fly

A spray of wattle-bough

To symbolise our unity --

We're all Australians now.

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:25 pm

mrsK;741362 wrote: WOW! He did well to survive Gallipoli.

I often watch that movie & have a cry,what a waste.

Keep those medals safe AP:-6

I will, indeed, Heather. He was a stretcher bearer. Aged 14. According to my Mum, he never talked about the War.

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:12 pm

AussiePam;741390 wrote: I will, indeed, Heather. He was a stretcher bearer. Aged 14. According to my Mum, he never talked about the War.

I can understand not talking about the war.

We have a friend who fought in Vietnam & never a word is spoken about that either.

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:29 pm

Ah yes, Vietnam. I had a soldier friend years ago. His platoon had been blown up in clean up operations, after most stuff was well over. He used to scream in the night. He didn't say much about that war, either.

I had lunch one day with a VIP, sitting in an outside restaurant beside the National Art Gallery water feature - mist rises from the reeds. A helicopter flew overhead.. and in his good suit and all, he hit the deck taking me with him. Apologies afterwards for that sudden Vietnam vet throwback survival action. But he not another word about the war.

mrsK · Post by **mrsK** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:16 pm

I thought this was appropriate to put here.

Fallen Digger finally on way homeArticle from: AAPFont size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print December 17, 2007 08:14pm

THE remains of a fallen soldier have begun the journey home from Vietnam to Australia after more than 36 years.

Lance Corporal John Gillespie, an army medic, died on April 17, 1971 aged 24, when a RAAF Iroquois helicopter crashed and burst into flames during a medical evacuation in the Long Hai Hills of Phuoc Tuy province, in southern Vietnam.

It was believed at the time that all human remains had been consumed in the blaze.

But Jim Bourke, founder of the group Operations Aussies Home, said an Australian government-conducted excavation of a helicopter crash site discovered remains identified as those of Lance Corporal Gillespie.

His widow, Carmel Hendrie, and daughter, Fiona Pike were at Hanoi International Airport today to watch soldiers of the First Combat Services Support Battalion carry his casket to a waiting RAAF C130 Hercules aircraft, which will return the remains to Melbourne.

Minister for Veterans' Affairs Alan Griffin, Repatriation Commissioner Brigadier William Rolfe (retired), Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Bill Tweddell, Mr Bourke and Operation Aussies Home colleague Peter Aylett also attended.

Mr Griffin thanked the Vietnamese Government and the Operation Aussies Home team for their roles in the repatriation of Lance Corporal Gillespie's remains.

"Soon, Lance Corporal Gillespie will be laid to rest at home, where his family can say the goodbyes that have been denied them for so long," he said in a statement.

Lance Corporal Gillespie's remains will be returned to Melbourne for a formal ceremony on Wednesday.

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:01 pm

May Lance Corporal John Gillespie rest in peace. And may his family - pictured in this morning's newspaper here in Canberrs - now find some sense of closure.