[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE GREATEST GIFT IN HONOR OF THE FALLEN THIS MEMORIAL DAY THE ONES WHO 
                      GAVE THAT LAST FULL MEASURE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CORY GARDNER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 22, 2013

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and in gratitude, for 
all of the fallen and their families this Memorial Day. I submit this 
poem penned in their honor by Albert Caswell.

                           The Greatest Gift

     The . . .
     The Greatest Gift!
     As such as this,
     is a many splendor thing!
     To lay down ones life,
     is but the brightest of all bright!
     To go off to war,
     all for your Nation . . . to so insure!
     Our freedom to so bring!
     As throughout the years . . .
     As have so come here!
     All of our most precious of all Daughter's and Son's,
     who have so persevered!
     With courage clear,
     as the face of death upon them so appeared!
     And for all of their lost loves,
     we now hold so very high above so very dear!
     The ones who so went off to war,
     all for our freedoms to so insure!
     To do what must so be done!
     For these are the ones,
     who so lived and so died and did so not ask why!
     As the Angels up in heaven all for them so cried!
     And, all of those families who so now live without!
     As their pain and their heartache so seems to mount!
     Until, up in Heaven again they all so meet on this you can 
           count!
     As all of their loved ones tears now so fall to the ground!
     The Mother's! The Father's! The Sister's! The Brother's!
     The Son's and The Daughters!
     Who together no longer so remain!
     Who so gave all that they so could!
     But For The Greater Good!
     The Ones Who So Heard The Call!
     The Ones Who So Stood So Very Tall!
     To Do What Must So Be Done!
     On Earth as it is In Heaven,
     In Thy Kingdom Come!
     To take up that flight,
     in The Army of Our Lord to so overcome!
     To so watch over us all day and night!
     And This Is Their Blood,
     that which now so runs!
     And these are the tears,
     that which your families have now so begun!
     And these are all of their dreams that which will so never 
           become!
     For this is The Day . . .
     that which so all portrays . . .
     America's very heart to so everyone!
     So give thanks,
     to all of those Yanks who lie now deep in the cold dark 
           ground!
     On This Memorial Day,
     forget not what they all so gave!
     And the families who with their tears will all so pay!
     As on your knees,
     I bid you please to so say a prayer for all of these!
     Who but with their fine lives so bought us peace!
     The ones who so lived and so died,
     while all of their families so cried . . .
     Who so fought all of those Wars which were waged!
     With but their fine lives that they gave,
     was but the high price of Freedom paid!
     Sadly,
     for any Nation to so live free!
     For any Nation to so find her most blessed peace!
     Her most precious of all Son's and Daughters,
     must lay down into the ground so very deep!
     Is but the cruel and high cost of most precious liberty!
     North, South, West, and so East!
     On This Memorial Day,
     please . . . please . . . Remember All of These!
     And so say a prayer!
     Amen!

                          ____________________