Posts
Before He Went to War Patty Ann Smith
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Hear ”Before He Went To War” by Patty Ann Smith
Patty Ann Smith sings from her heart and writes from her soul. Her sweet sounds and lyrics encompass deep thoughts, emotions and ideas.
Patty gives generously of her art and music. Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute has the honor of featuring Patty’s own version of A Peaceful Solution. Besides Patty’s wonderful musical contribution to Willie Nelson’s peace project, her submission brought an extra bonus.
At the time of Patty’s submission her song became the third one by a woman artist. Still to date the men outnumber the women in A Peaceful Solution submissions.
Identical patterns appear for A Peaceful Solution video contest. Patty helped again by making A Peaceful Solution video using her version of the song.
You and I are One offers another musical message in video form from this talented, sensitive and compassionate human being.
Patty sent us a moving song and story about her brother and we felt compelled to share this with you. Patty explains it best in her own words.
I was inspired to submit my song and a story about it after reading Jay’s post about Paul Booth’s film “Empty Streets” about a soldier’s lonely journey to transition back into society after returning home from war. I wrote the song “Before He Went to War” about my brother, Bob, a Vietnam Vet, after he died in 2003.
“Before He Went to War” - A love song to my brother
Early in the year 2003, my brother, Bob, and I who lived several states apart, had a phone conversation. The impending Iraq War and the UN negotiations were a pretty important topic at that time. Bob and I did not share the same thoughts on that topic.
Bob, having been in the military (and, also, his father before him) had been trained to think a certain way. I, on the other hand, am in the flower-child category. But because of our deep love for each other and our shared parental history of alcohol and fighting, neither of us gravitated to argumentative conflict. We both had become skilled at “friendly persuasion”:).
It was after “Happy Hour” and Bob had had a few. Our conversation had been “lively”, but suddenly my brother began to vividly relive an event that happened to him in Vietnam that I never knew about.
Bob was in the US Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees); and the Seabees work is to build bases, bulldoze and pave miles and miles of roadways and airstrips, and many other kinds of construction projects. Bob was sent to Vietnam, lived in barracks that were close to enemy territory, with only a wire fence separating the Seabees from a village of poor Vietnamese civilian families.
During the day when the soldiers were working in construction, some of the villagers came to the fence to watch. There was one particular family that my brother and some of his buddies felt they could help in some way. They befriended the father and managed to acquire some things like blankets, clothing, and food.
And in the middle of the night, a couple of guys would sneak out and put them at the fence where the father would be waiting and humbly accept the soldiers’ gifts. But then there came a night when my brother didn’t know this man anymore.
The man had become an enemy combatant and he and others stormed the fence, broke into all of the barracks and tried to kill as many soldiers as they could. My brother was face to face with this man and he had to kill him.
Bob was never a killer of anything in his life, and he had to carry that with him till the day he died, about 6 months later on a hot August summer afternoon in 2003.
I wrote this song after his death and in the heat of my grief. And, I kept singing it and playing it to myself over and over again in the hope that I could keep him with me. It was my love song to my brother. ~ Patty Ann Smith
Hear ”Before He Went To War” by Patty Ann Smith
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply