Tabitha Edwards-Walton: My Hero

by Tabitha Edwards-Walton, nurse, poet, and author of Poetic Diversities and Poetic Life Experiences.
 
He left his life of nothing behind him, when he walked into the military recruiting office.
He was only seventeen years old. He walked away from his family. It was his decision.
He went into boot camp, then he went to active service.
He was then a Marine. He was flown to Vietnam. Which was all the way across the ocean.
It was such an honor for him. That he served for his country.
Oh how he missed his family! He knew this is what God had called for him to do.
Out in the battlefields, even the worst guy in the unit was still his buddy.
He did everything he could to make sure everyone was safe. Although they lost a few.
 
He came home from the war, not a scratch on him. He was lucky he was alive.
He was never home long before he had to leave again.
This job was not your typical nine to five.
That is how it was for the military back then.
 
One time on leave he met a girl, they got married.
They were not married for long before he had to go to Germany.
When she finally got there, that is when he found out that she was large bellied.
She was pregnant with his first baby.
 
By this time he had transferred out of the Marines and into the Army.
He continued to move around every couple of years
He felt it was his civic duty.
He was a man of no fears.
 

He volunteered to go back to Vietnam for a second tour.
This time around he saved more lives. He dragged a high-ranking officer to a fox hole.
While bullets flew all around. He thought he would be dead for sure.
He lived, unscratched, because he did not lose control.
Two children later and a twenty-year career.
I am proud of who he was. He retired from the US. Army.
This man is still with us today. He is still here.
This man is my hero. Thank you, Daddy.