On 11 November 2014, I had the privilege of helping Kansas State University’s Arnold Air Society Squadron (Arnold Air is a supplemental society to AFROTC) with their annual 24 hour Silent Guard. Every Veteran’s Day, in hour long shifts, cadets stand guard at the Vietnam Memorial on campus. They stand there for an hour in complete unmoving silence. The last several years had produced very cold Veteran’s Days, but that has not and will not stop these cadets from honoring those who came before them. Below is a picture I took of one such cadet on guard just after midnight when the event started and a poem that I wrote to along with it.

Do you see the man
Who stands watch for an hour
In the dead of the night
To remember the fallen
Those who came before him
Names etched in stone
A memorial
To those who never really came home