Back at home you have a house or apartment

Rooms, things, space

Out here you live far more simply

Un-succembed to the rat-race

Your CHU is your home – all you have this time

Be it shared or housed alone

When out on patrol it’s the Stryker you’ve got

In summer’s heat, winter’s chill to the bone

You dismount for days with your pack

You carry what you need

Little room inside for comfort things

Keep warm or dry – no greed

The food you need and water’s life

Extra radio batteries

Some frag-grenades and candy bars

Don’t forget more magazines

And in the fight you drop away

What only weighs you down

Just your helmet, vest, a utility pouch

Get you closer to the ground

What’s on you now is what you’ve got

Uniform and skin your home

Behind a berm or in some ditch

Your own little catacomb

Dodge the fire, move to the fight

You’ve got more things to do

Map in your pocket guides you right

Back ‘home’ when fighting’s through

Unless it’s bad, going quickly south

Your Kevlar hug and helmet’s hide

These are where you’ll live till it’s through

As your hope is shrunken inside

The world is big and you are small

But You are what you control

Don’t be afraid, war takes your life

But cannot take your soul