We Have Been Here Before

Wrote this in 2002 while at Prince Sultan AB, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

The places have changed, Lexington, Concord, Valley Forge, Yorktown, Ft Mc Henry, New Orleans, Vera Cruz, Chulpultepec (spelling incorrect), First Manassas, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Manila Bay, San Juan Hill, the Trenches of France, Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Bastonge, Yalu River, Pork Chop Hill, Khe Sahn, Hue City, Beirut, Grenada, Panama, Al Kafji, 38 Degrees East, Kuwait City, Bosnia, Somalia, and Kosovo.

Now we add the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, a small field in Pennsylvania, and now Afghanistan and whatever comes next. The places change, the mission stays the same…defend Freedom.

Those before us look from the past at us and hope we are made of the same stuff they were.

The weapons and equipment change, but some of us have the same Minuteman spirit. If my Civil War ancestors could pull themselves out of their graves, regenerating bone and sinew, how would they view us today?

Can those who went through the hell of Iwo Jima see us as equals?

Will those who froze at Valley Forge look at our comfortable barracks and thrice daily hot meals, and laugh at us when we complain?

When the history of this war is written, I hope that we will be seen as, at least, half as good as our warrior ancestors.


May history judge us kindly.


TSgt Fred Shon Powers
363 ESFS/SFOA
Prince Sultan Air Base
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
May 17, 2002