Preamble For A Core Values Class Of Military Basics Poem by Bill Grace

You have not heard the stories
Of the great war my father's generation fought.

You have not read the local news of valiant heroes
Dead upon far foreign shores
(my mother used to feed the father cookies,
now he has The Medal to remind of flesh and blood
that were his son.)

You do not know war's ordinary deaths,
'Foxy' was not a hero
My memories are of track team bus rides and how quiet he was.

You can not know these things
It is not fair to ask you - but others do -
And so we meet: to share, to learn, to explore, to hallow that history
At whose center Honor is a verb
And Core Values our compass to find it in our times.