Service Without Question

Here we are in the month of September relishing the splendid changes within nature's landscapes. The crispness of the air infiltrates our nostrils while visions of majestic changes in color mesmerize our senses. Yet, it has not always been this way during the autumnal season. Nor is it so pleasant for all everywhere at this time.

There have always been times of war. Biblical war. Civil war. World war. Cold war. Unnecessary war. War is WAR! War is hell. So many lives taken. Young. Old. Age knows no boundaries when it comes to war. The visions of war are woven with bloody images and broken bone. Within battlefields reside ghosts of our ancestry. 

Today let's embrace the past and take a look at the first world war...

The battle at Passchendaele

World War I (WWI), a global war centered in Europe, began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. Four years of fighting resulted in over one million deaths and 20 times that many soldiers with severe injuries.  

World War I took place on foreign soil with America being drawn into its midst in 1917. American losses — 48,000 killed in battle, 56,000 lost to disease — seemed trifling compared to the staggering costs paid by other countries.

“The horror of it all kept me awake for weeks, nor has the awfulness of it all deserted me, but at first it seemed a horrid dream.”

~Anonymous

The Great War: WWI

With war in Europe, all eyes and ears remained keenly aware of its presence and acutely alert to its impact on the United States. Courage and allegiance to America remained stalwart in the face of imminent danger; battles were won and lost on foreign soil.

Landscapes collapsed under the brutality of war

Relinquishing timeless relics unto life’s plight

Variegated shades of crimson covered the hillsides

Capturing lifelessness within dawn’s early light

 

The encumbrance of blight, life in death

 Shrouded fields once lush from flowing streams

Spoils and scars saddled the countryside

While endless flames blazed even in dreams

Night became bright as day

As flashes riveted across a star-shelled sky

Blood curdling sights and sounds

Echoed within each and every battle cry

One water bottle for forty men

Such anguish one could not ignore

The ghastly stench of death and dying

One could only gravely abhor

Anticipation of life’s last breath

Made even the brightest day pale

Yet in the midst of such bleak darkness

Hopes of peace nonetheless prevailed

Singing and whistling heard from the trenches

Authenticated life still truly existed

Despite the cold, hunger and suffering

Never once was the question why I enlisted
 

  ©2013 Awakenings

 Sharla Lee Shults

“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”

—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)