For the Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labor of the day-time;
They sleep beyond our country's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
In Remembrance of A Company's Fallen
A Company, 5-20th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Taken from the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, 1914
Paul and Barbara Selge 05/06/2020
Parents of SSG Todd W. Selge KIA