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The Sailor
By Blair P. McClune, Jr.
Our Dad was Just a working Man
An ordinary life
A Father to his Children
A husband to his Wife
Dad walked this Earth for Eighty
years
With Dignity and Grace
You knew just where you stood with Dad
He met life face to face
He grew up in a Steel Mill Town
The toughest years of all
It left its mark there is no doubt
In ways both great and small
There was a hidden toughness
In the Man that we called Dad
He stood solid as a rock
When times were good or bad
His courage, strength, and valor
Were forged in sweat and strife
When He and thousands like him
Went to save our way of life
The Navy built some Sailors
And put them to the test
In those cold Alaskan waters
For days no meals no rest
Recover now the wounded ship
Beneath the Golden Gate
Find Harbor at Mare Island
Its there you'll meet your Fate
This handsome man in Navy Blue
Would never court another
He met a girl from Arkansas
That we would know as Mother
And there for over Fifty Years
In love were Mom and Dad
They turned a house into a Home
With everything they had
Up that gravel driveway
On a cold or stormy night
We'd hear that Chevy wagon
And knew things would be alright
The Paper every morning
His pencils and his pens
That red plaid vest on Christmas Day
We knew just where and when
But did we really know him?
Was there something else?
Some silent secret pain or hurt
Kept mostly to himself
As time rolled on he told the
tale
Of how the fallen brave
Amidst the prayers and Navy Hymn
Had slipped beneath the wave
He never ran for office
Or wrote a famous tune
He never won the Super Bowl
Or walked upon the Moon
It wasn't in the Headlines
The Flags were not half Mast
The World kept right on turning
The Day that Daddy passed
But in perhaps a dozen homes
The very first of May
Will be the day our Hero died
We miss you Dad Today
Somewhere in God's Kingdom
We know he will reside
We wish for Him some Coffee
His shipmates by his side
For those in
peril on the Sea
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