I feel such pain

~My hunger grows

to be at ease~

~My Mortal soul

is not at peace~

~I feel such pain

from years gone past~

~My mind insaned

in ever last~

~My every night

is filled with fear~

~I dream in fright

my body sears~

~I stay not sleep

nor do I wake~

~In Limbo’s keep

my body quakes~

~My hunger grows

to be at ease~

~My mortal soul

it yearns for peace~

~I pray my Lord

he gave me life~

~To wield his sword

and end this strife~

~To cleanse my soul

and ease my pain~

~To make me whole

be not insaned~

Duke Sherman

P.T.S.D/VN Vet

The Devil's Curse

~So Long ago

so far away~

~I lost my Soul

in Satan’s fray~

~I went to war

a Soldier’s plight~

~So much the horror

so many died~

~Many were friends

many were not~

~They met their ends

in Satan’s plot~

~Not all a man

but not a child~

~My Soul was dammed

my mind defiled~

~But eighteen years

I was of age~

~I did not fear

so full of rage~

~But now I dream

of all the death~

~I wake in scream

I cannot rest~

~In constant pain

my life astray~

~Am I insane

the Devil’s prey~

~I pray each night

to end this curse~

~The Devil’s bite

is all the worse~

~My every dream

filled is with horror~

~I wake in scream

still at war~

~Until one day

The Sands of Time~

~Will grant my pray

and ease my mind~

Duke Sherman

In These I Do Pray

                                   PTSD Is Hell

~My every night before I sleep

I pray my God to hear~

~To heal this pain inside of me

take away my fear~

~With every beat of my heart

every breath I take~

~I pray my life anew will start

the morn when I awake~

~No more nightmares of the war

peace within my sleep~

~Take away these Hellish horrors

within my mind I keep~

~Let me live a normal life

once again to love~

~Take away my aching strife

imprisoning me in of~

~My memories bring me so much pain

at times of wanting death~

~Sometimes going near insane

never feeling rest~

~I pray one day I find my way

back to sanity~

~No longer fearing the coming day

dwelling inside of me~

~Ending this loneliness pulling me apart

once again to love~

~Mending the wound within my heart

in that I do pray of~

~With every beat of my heart

every breath I take~

~I pray my life anew will start

the morn when I awake~

~To once again take long walks

not fearing from aback~

~Or wondering if people will gawk 

causing me to snap~

~Have my children respect me

visiting out of love~

~Not for what they want in greed

in that I do pray of~

~To remember their times of youngering 

when our lives were close~

~When Daddy was their everything

instead of being cold~

~And when I am gone to think of me

remembering all that was~

~To proudly announce He was my Daddy

 in that I do pray of~

~My every night before I sleep

I pray my God to hear~

~To heal this pain inside of me

take away my fear~

Duke Sherman

Sgt, US Army

Vietnam Veteran

P>T>S>D

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that is caused by exposure to a traumatic event or experience, which causes people to feel fear, anger and helplessness. It especially affects those who have experienced violent assaults, either to themselves or others, natural disasters or catastrophes caused by individuals, and military combat. PTSD can be difficult to diagnose because many people do experience intense emotions, such as shock and fear, after traumatic experiences, but it is those that have these feelings over longer periods of time, such as a month, who are more likely to have PTSD

Read more: Symptoms of PTSD From Vietnam | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5085311_symptoms-ptsd-vietnam.html#ixzz1s2d2LIjL

We Were Soldiers II

A Traitor to America

G-Troop

2/11 ACR

And 25th Inf

Ambush Patrol

1972

~We were Soldiers one and all

fighting for our flag~

~We saw our brothers fall by fall

go home in Body bags~

~We could hear their cries of death

fighting to the end~

~Gasping to breathe their last breath

many were my friends~

~Throughout the day into the night

unto the next of day~

~Charlie hit us hard in Fire fights

but we made him pay~

~Ten of us one hundred of them

a terrible cost of life~

~Battles lasting to never end

striking from their hives~

~Compounded by lasting rains

saturating all around~

~Causing some to go insane

but still we held our ground~

~Back home they protested us

siding with the Cong~

~Burning our flag with Discuss

saying we were wrong~

~Jane Fonda played a Traitors game

posing on their guns~

~An enemy to us America’s shame

collaborating scum~

~She supported the enemy’s every lie

with her evil slurs~

~While our soldiers fought for their lives

in defense of hers~

~Our brothers sitting in rat filled cells

one hundred yards away~

~Hotel Hanoi their private Hell

suffering every day~

~Fifty eight thousand two hundred plus

gave their precious lives~

~Believing in what we thought was just

protecting freedoms right~

~No heroes welcome or job well done

when we came home~

~We were no better than horses dun

we would stand alone~

~They spit on us and called us names

Baby killers from Hell~

~Only adding to memories of pain

many we could not tell~

~For some of us the war goes on

every night we dream~

~We find ourselves back in Nam

waking in a scream~

~Relationships are not as they fail

scaring those away~

~Some find themselves locked in jails

minds gone astray~

~Caused by being hooked on dope

coping with the pain~

~Giving up loosing all their hope

and going insane~

~In the end many take their own lives

after surviving the Nam~

~Leaving behind children and wives

in pain and dwelling on~

~We were Solders one and all

fighting for our flag~

~We saw our bothers fall by fall

go home in Body bags~

~We wait our turn to join with them

to end our ever pain~

~When Azriel takes us at our end

to the Soldier’s hall of fame~

Duke Sherman

Sgt,USA 

G-Troop, 2/11 ACR

Vietnam 1971-1972

Black Horse Soldier

We Were Soldiers

Let Us Not Forget

~Now I lay me down to sleep

as I do each night~

~I pray the Lord my soul to keep

unto the coming light~

~If I should die before I wake

within my nightmarish~

I pray the Lord my soul to take

unto his Heaviness~

~Sometimes I feel my life in ruins

my thoughts play hide in seek~

~Headed for the land of doom

all in turning bleak~

~My mood of swing be flying high

upon the tightest rope~

~So many young so many died

so many years ago~

~But for me ‘twas just last night

like every night before~

~An overwhelming Firefight

of blood in wrenching horror~ 

~I dream of death in never end

walking every turn~

~Remembering those of all my friends

whom never did return~

~Of those I killed in self defense

they had families too~

~I pray for their remembrance

in Heaven’s rendezvous~

~When I leave this earth in death

I ask you only this~

~To bury me at Soldiers Rest

in that of reminisce~

~To pray for me of Heaven send

in that I did my best~

~I was a Soldier to the end

unto my final rest~

~”We Were Soldiers” young in old

in the midst of war~

~Of so very long ago

my nightly dream of horror~

~I dream of death in never end

walking every turn~

~Remembering those of all my friends

whom never did return~

~Of those I killed in self defense

they had families too~

~I pray for their remembrance

in Heaven’s rendezvous~

Duke Sherman

Vietnam Veteran

Black Horse Soldier

Vietnam, 1971/1972

My Every Nightmare ~Let Us Not Forget~

       

PTSD Is Very Real

 ~Why do things happen in life

to bring to a man so much strife~

~To fill his soul with that of such pain

as if to bind him with a weighted chain~

~So great his sadness he cannot bare

no one to love no one to care~

~His thoughts are full of but why

 often he ponders his own demise~

~He fought in the war so long ago

a very young man of just eighteen years old~

~PTSD’s real has it does he

a gift from hell total misery~

~Afraid to sleep stays awake in the night

to sleep would return him back to the fight~

~He’s suffered for years causing but grief

leaving him in shock and that of bereave~

~Memories of friends felled by the war

the taking of life so many the horror~

~Silently he cries God help me please

take from me this terrible disease~

~To know in my life peace once again

a Blessing my God please will you send~

Duke Sherman

Wartime Nineteen seventy-one

 

I often dream of the day,

I can throw my past away!

The things I’ve done long ago,

when I wasn’t very old!

Nightmares caused by some of them,

things that many have condemned!

Wartime Nineteen seventy-one,

God help us for what we’ve done!

The sight of so many in war dying,

is unforgettable and horrifying!

It’s not that I think I’ve done wrong,

memories of death’s been with me so long!

I served my Country with pride,

and for her I'd still die!

But Nightmares steal from me my sleep, 

and sometime they make me weep!

The scenes of blood in my mind don’t go away,

their fresh in my thoughts each and every day!

I see my friends gasping for their last breath,

just a split second before their death!

I see myself running for cover,

from the mortar rounds falling all over!

I remember the war as if it were yesterday,

the memories don’t fade away!

That’s what PTSD is my friends,

and it will be with me ‘til the end!

Sgt Duke Sherman

G-Troop, 2/11 ACR

Black Horse Soldier

Vietnam Veteran

Drinking My Life Away

 

Once I was a man with little to say,

I was perfectly content to drink my life away!

I’d come home from Nam with memories in my head,

that sometimes made me wish I was dead!

When I slept I dremt of war,

of all that I’d seen of it’s horror!

I’d stay awake at night in fear of death,

my life was a total mess for lack of rest!

I couldn’t function in life properly,

I started to drink heavely!

I’ve married several times in life,

but I just couldn’t hold onto a wife!

I never hit or abused them in anyway,

but my nightmares chased them away!

I was later diagnosed with PTSD,

and stopped self medicating!

The nightmares are still there,

I’ve come to handle them better!

I still stay awake every night,

but at least now I have a life!

Duke Sherman