I am attaching a poem called Veterans, in the hope you might share it with your readers, next week, in celebration of Veterans Day. I wrote the poem a year ago, and dedicated it to my comrades who trained at Sampson Air Force Base, in the Finger Lake region of New York. The base began as a Naval Station, and operated from 1942 - 1956. I did my Basic Training in 1954.

The poem is on my web site, and also on the Sampson Air Force Base Veteran's web site, at http://homestead.com/sampsonvets.

It will appear in my book, In Time and Love. If you like the poem and feel it an appropriate tribute from your paper, you might consider sharing it with other papers in the Anton Newspaper group. The Port Washington News has carried many of my poems in the past, and the response to me was always very positive.

William Brendon McPhillips

Veterans

Remember not the glory but the cause,

The way it would be, not the way it was

Before we were, before the oath and all

The stuff nostalgia brings to love, recall

Those buddies, pals and comrades we became

In that brief time, and worry not the name,

But keep the deep unaging promise sworn

Against the certainty of aging worn,

And stand in grand determination, give

The day gone tribute, now the joy and live

As quiet heroes, heroes just as sure

As those who died, the living too endure

The challenge peace, the peace we sought and won,

Remember us, when all is said and done.

William Brendan McPhillips

November 11, 1999