http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Rs9yP/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022800165.html?wpisrc ="nl_cuzhead"
It's almost as if history stalked this guy.
"After the armistice, he traveled the globe as a purser on commercial ships and was caught in Manila when Japan invaded the Philippines in 1941. He endured 38 months of cruel deprivation as a civilian prisoner during World War II before being freed in a daring military raid."
Mr. Buckles, who was born by lantern light in a Missouri farmhouse, quit school at 16 and bluffed his way into the Army. Mr. Buckles said he was just a naive schoolboy chasing adventure when he enlisted Aug. 14, 1917, after the United States joined a war that had been raging for three years, with millions dead. "I knew what was happening in Europe, even though I was quite young,"
Thank you Mr. Buckles and your many brave companions!
Look, God, I have never spoken to you before,
But now I want to say: "How do you do?"
You see God, they told me you didn’t exist,
And, like a fool, I believed all this.
Last night from a shell hole I saw your sky,
I figured right then they had told me a lie,
Had I taken the time to see things you made,
I’d have known they weren’t calling a spade a spade,
I wonder, God, if you’d shake my hand,
Somehow I feel that you’d understand.
Funny I had to come to this hellish place,
Before I had time to see your face.
Well, I guess there isn’t much more to say,
But I am sure, God, I met you today.
I guess the zero hour will soon be here.
The signal! Well, God, I have to go,
I like you lots, this I want you to know.
Look now, this will be a horrible fight,
Who knows, I may come to your house tonight.
Though I wasn’t friendly to you before,
I wonder, God, if you’d wait at your door?
Look, I’m crying! Me. Shedding tears!
I wish I had known you these many years.
Well! I have to go now, God, goodbye.
Since I met you, I’m not afraid to die.
Hooah!
CV
