Tag : duty

The Infantry Scout

Navajo Code Talker
A Navajo code talker relays a message on a field radio. The code talkers served in the South Pacific during World War II and were kept a secret until 1968 when the Navajo code was finally declassified July 07, 1945. Marine Corps photo released by Cpl. Alexandra Vazquez

In bare December woods we lie
On frozen ground to wait and try
To look through distant trees to see
If we will live or we will die.

No hero’s choice has put me here
Caught between two kinds of fear,
One of safety bought with scorn,
And one of duty bought most dear.

At a hushed command I rise.
To those behind I am their eyes
Or, more, their blind man’s cane that probes
Until it meets with some surprise.

And now I fearful move ahead
Toward the forest-hidden dread,
True to them and true to me.
There’s little more that can be said.