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A Tin Can
Sailor
By: MMC Joseph
Early, USN (Ret.)
USS Vammen (DE-644)
USS Gregory (DD-802)
USS Furse
(DD-882)
A tin can sailor
Is a friend, indeed
He’ll come to your
aid
In a time of need
He’ll laugh at your jokes,
Agree with your
lies
And happy being
Just one of the guys.
After some lengthy
Maneuvers at sea
His mind
is focused
On a good liberty
When he first sets foot
On the ship yard
docks
You know where he’s from
By the way he walks.
And he walks quite fast
To his watering
hole
Where he becomes prey
For some one to roll.
If he should get rolled
He shows no
regrets
If they left him change
For some cigarettes
then on the way back
To his ship once more
He
walks funnier
Than he did before
Like all good sailors
After they unwind
Rolls
up his sleeves, and
Gets back to the grind
There’s the heat from steam
And many long
hours
Little fresh water
For taking showers
But he doesn’t mind
Any part of this
He’s a
tin can man
And that’s how it is
When his ship departs
And enters harms way
He
will state with pride
“Just earning my pay.”
And as they proceed
Through the jowls of
hell
He’s pleased with himself
For performing well
When the ship returns
To home port once
more
He takes the credit
For winning the war
Then in later years
In civilian life
He will
settle down
With a lovely wife
While at his bedside
And on bended knee
He
will pray for those
Who were lost at sea
After drifting off
Into a deep dream
He’s
back aboard ship
And cranking up steam
His mind often dwells
On his old
shipmates
Cherishing his years
With those reprobates
At ships reunions
He’s first to arrive
With
his sea stories
The past comes alive
And the bond that formed
While part of the
crew
Becomes stronger still
With their past on review
That same bond they share
No one can
sever
All tin can sailors
Are shipmates forever
http://www.destroyers.org/other%20information/poets%20corner/poem-a%20tin%20can%20sailor-2.htm
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