Page 7

+++++
JUNE 6, 1944
This date will be forever remembered by the members of E Co. as the
Invasion of Normandy. We carried many memories away from there and
we left the most precious ones behind.

To help us commemorate this date I have chosen a poem recently sent
in by our buddy Buffalo Boy Canoe. I think it captures some of the
pathos of the campaign.

THE PURPLE HEART ORATION

By Buffalo Boy Canoe

I have borne my cross with courage though in agony and pain,
I have dragged my mangled body over Europes' rough terrain.

I have heard the whining drone of shells that fell from out
the skies,
I have seen the fighting comrade who is happy, laughs...
then dies.

I have felt the sting of leaden bees that swarmed about my face;
I have known the end of prejudice... each color... every race.

I have paid the price of Victory... its bitterness... each part.
And when this hell was finished, I had won the Purple Heart.

(He has won the Purple Heart) they say. He's a hero...
he shant beg...
But their eyes betray their attitude when they see my twisted
leg.

There may be men of higher rank to keep us in the shade,
But we’re written down in history... The Purple Heart Brigade.

I have seen my friends of yesteryear all fall beneath the guns.
Now they lie on Battlefields...but they’re the lucky ones!

Faith and hope, the molding of my own true heart, are dead.
They have killed it and have given me a purple one instead!

But when my earthly troubles and my torments all are done...
God, Please Give Back My Own True Heart and Keep The Purple One!