SHADES OF GREEN
Follow me now and I’ll take you back
through mystical shades of green
to a faraway place where men waged war
in battles few have seen
Down the darkened valleys
and up the misted peaks
through bamboo stands and tiger grass
and muddied jungle streams
They laughed and cried as brothers
no color, no race, just men
they fought alongside together
but died alone in the arms of the wind
As a mother dreams of a son who was lost
to a cause that only he knew
and her heart cries out in the lonely night
Oh, God, my son why you
Then maybe someday when the truth dares be told
no longer the need for a lie
people shall know as their sons did
the reason for which they did die
They tell me at night in the Ia Drang
of a sound that stirs the soul
the mournful voices of soldiers
on a whispered and lonely patrol
They seek not an enemy unit
but friends who’ve long since gone
with eyes that see forever
this ghostly patrol searches on
Oft times at night, those days come back
and I see their faces well
that long dark line of soldiers
who’ve seen the depths of hell
They’re holding out their hands to me
as if for help, I know
but there is no way to reach them
this lonely, lost patrol
Now their names are etched forever
in black granite for all to be seen
but their souls have passed to heaven
through mystical shades of green.
Sp./4 Charles R. Laing
E Co. -4th/39th Infantry
9th Infantry Division
and C Co.
1st/12th –4th Infantry Division
Republic of Vietnam 1967