Silent Night -1970

First Christmas away from home
A Marine, Danang, South Vietnam
Bob Hope Christmas Show
A small time to forget

Some jokes, some songs
Bob and some girls
A little bit of home
Over too soon

Gloria Loring sang ‘Silent Night’
Sweetest song I’ve ever heard,
Gentle, soothing, beautiful,
Brave men, women, all, and not a dry eye

Back to the bush
Was I really just there?
The two worlds are so different
It’s like a twilight zone

Lonelier now than I was before
That hadn’t seemed possible
But for a short time I was home
I wouldn’t have missed it

Standing guard on Christmas Eve
My buddy asleep, my turn will come.
Has a night ever been so black?
Has anyone ever felt so alone?

The enemy is out there
Waiting to kill, I wait here too
What a thought on such a night
The Night of nights

Back home my family sleeps
To awake to a new day of hope
Here we wait
Hoping for a another day

I bow my head and pray,
"Silent Night, Holy Night
May there never be
Another night like this."





Michael Tank
USMC
Scout/Snipers
‘69-’72

12/23/01



"Copyright 2004. Michael E. Tank All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author."