Honor and Faith

Last weekend, we celebrated Memorial Day – dedicated to the memory of those men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Today we remember D-Day, the World War II operation that began the re-taking of France back from the Nazis. I’m glad of these and the many other opportunities we have to honor those who make our country and our freedom possible.

I’d like to honor my grandfather. John Groebner served in France in 1918, in World War I. He was in the US Army Corps of Engineers, the 34th Division. Grandpa died when I was only in my teens and too young to be thinking about the stories I should have learned from him. So I don’t know anything about his years of service – except for some poems he left behind. He wrote of sweethearts and mothers left at home. He wrote drinking songs and tributes to his regiment. He wrote with humor and he wrote with faith. I’d like to share a couple of his writings here, to celebrate our service men and women everywhere and in every time.

Our Country
To her we drink, for her we pray
Our voices silent never.
For her we’ll fight, come what may,
The Stars and Stripes forever!

His Flag
(about the service flag flown in honor of a member of the military)
It’s just a service flag but oh!
How much it means to those who know
The sovereign pride, the thrill, the grit,
The stabbing pangs that paid for it.

It means a buoyant soul that’s gone
Where shell and shrapnel crack the dawn
Fine courage, leaving with a smile
The things that youth finds most worthwhile.

It means a mother-heart that pressed
A dear, dear head against her breast
That he might never see or know
The tears that washed the whispered “Go”.

It stands, that service flag, for youth
That’s found new standards of Right and Truth.
It means to all, though king or clod,
A richer fellowship with God.


Thank you, Grandpa. And thank you to all our service men and women and the families who love them and let them go. Please feel free to click on "Comments" below and share your stories of honor.