THE UNSUNG HEROES

You can read about the heroes,
Army, Navy, Air Force too,
But what about the merchantmen,
They fought the battles too.

How quickly we've forgotten,
How courageous deed were done,
When they sailed amid the wolf packs,
On the North Atlantic Run.

We've forgotten frozen fingers,
And the stukas of the north,
We've forgotten all the merchantmen,
Whose traditions set their course.

We've forgotten shark filled waters,
And the tanker's scorching pyre,
They battled hard to save their ships,
In the face of hostile fire.

There's not many who remember.
All the horror that they saw,
Or why among their unworn ribbons,
They hold the Combat Bar.

They're not ones for wearing medals,
At parades their seldom seen.
A shame for our forgetting,
The backbone of our team.

Ian A. Millar