Written in a Japanese POW camp in Mongolia at great peril to his life by a Bataan Death March survivor.

1. A soldier is a nobody, we hear lots of people say.
   He is the outcast of the world and always in the way.

2. We admit there are bad ones from the Army to the Marines,
   but the majority you will find, the most worthy ever seen.

3. Most people condemn the soldier when he stops to take a drink or two,
   but does a soldier condemn you, when you stop to take a few.

4. Now don't scorn the soldier but clasp him by the hand,
   for the uniform he wears means protection to our land.

5. The goverment picks its soldier from the million far and wide,
   so please place him as your equal good buddies side by side.

6. When a soldier goes to battle you cheer him on the way,
   you say he is a hero when in the ground he lay.

7. But the hardest battle of the soldier is in the time of peace,
   when all mock and scorn him and treat him like a beast.

8. With these few lines we close sir, we hope we don't offend
   but when you meet a soldier just treat him like a friend.

CMSC Brown, USAF Ret.
The youngest survivor of the Bataan Death March.

© 1997-2009 SUVCW & David Merchant
Updated 19 March 2001