Veteran's tribute in poetry to fellow vets

For years, Seymour Berger has used poetry to express the deep experiences of life.

While his wife was battling Stage 4 lung cancer, Berger wrote a poem to inspire everyone who has had cancer and those who work daily to defeat it. That poem now hangs in patient care rooms at cancer centers scattered around the country.

With Veteran's Day approaching, Berger, who grew up in northeast Pennsylvania, but now lives in New Jersey, sent Action News his poem "The Veteran."

It draws from his own experience as a veteran, and that of other vets, to remind everyone what it takes to wear an American military uniform.

Berger's poem has also been published by several military groups, including Order of the Purple Heart, the Disabled American Veterans, and Legiontown (American Legion):

The Veteran

Whether you join the Army, Navy or Marines

You serve your country as a proud American human being

You go through hard basic training to meet that special day ahead

The workout I get its hard getting out of bed

As days and weeks pass you by

You mustn't have fear or cry

Show the enemy you will conquer him

The training you had will make you win

Got to clean my weapon for inspection

Can't let it clog up, so it can fire in any direction

The time is getting closer as I know

My company just got notification we must go

Flying to a classify area the land was clear

Watching out for snipers that could be near

We must be on high alert

The killer enemy can be covered with leaves and dirt

Getting my rifle ready inserting my bayonet

Walking through a stream my feet got wet

Machine gun bullets coming straight at us

We hit that ground and got mouth full of dust

Our back up did arrive

Kept all of us alive

We drove the enemy into surrendering

No more killing and a final ending

Now I'm discharge, back in the states

American citizen and a proud veteran that rates

By Seymour Berger

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