To Edward Joseph Nilges 1915-1945.
KIA April 6 1945.
Captain, United States Army, 442nd Regimental Combat Team ("Go For Broke", "Nisei").
Silver Star, Purple Heart.
Li quens Rollant se jut desuz un pin (The Count Roland lies beneath a Pine) - Chanson de Roland In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid...
- Gilbert Chesterton, Lepanto  The captain of the month of May Was light of heart and this he did say: I shall die in April that you shall live in May.
 The waters were bitter the waters were cold The Germans entrenched in the hills, But their Captain was busy and their Captain was bold He made great their souls and made firm their wills.
A straight up the mountain assault, The hardest trick in the book Under German fire through the tangled wire The blood flowed down to the brook.
 He was the tallest man in the unit by far A tall German-American The men were Nisei, born in America Their Moms and their Dads in the can.
 Hyphenated and mistrusted were they not men Wanting to prove they were loyal So they answered the call at the time, when They were called to the trial.
 It was a sideshow in terms of the war Vienna had fallen to the Russians so grim: Back home it was all a bit of a bore But that meant nothing to them.
 The Captain of the Month of May Was seen with a letter, what did it say? It said Dear John, that's all I know But he smiled at him, and said, hi Joe.
 He trained them hard and he trained them well By the book like a German: He said, "we're going in to hell" "Keep it wired together, you men.
" Â "There's something called the angle of fire And it means your life Know where it is in the sickening gyre If you want to go home to your kids and your wife.
" Â They took the mountain Folgorito And Lombardy was free: The living saw the river, the living saw the Po Flowing free down to the sunlit sea.
 And in May the Russians took the Tiergarten, The Russians took the zoo, And free men all were heartened When Hitler his brains out, blew.
 And in Lombardy, Mussolini Knew the jig was up And was hanged with La Petacci On death they both did sup.
 But he was Don Juan of Austria, He was the County de Roland, He was a son of America And for freedom, he did stand.
 But we teach no more Lepanto Nor the Chanson of Roland But guys still to Hell must go And there they must make a stand.
 For the right or for the wrong To the widow it makes no difference She weeps so sore in the night that's long And is pensioned on your sufferance.
 Nothing's changed except the poet's song In rhyme and metre that's old hat Because when your life is hard and long You must keep time and that...
is that  Some mens' lives are shortened By the Maxim and the gun Others are unduly lengthened In the setting of the sun.
 But those who die young do not hate us And they have no envy, no, not any They know that sorrow is a magic bus The pain is fixed as an Epiphany.
 Instead they haunt us at the rising sun Or when the sun goes down: They are smiling and forever young In blue, or grey, or olive, or in brown.
 The captain of the month of May Was light of heart and this he did say: I shall die in April that you shall live in May!
KIA April 6 1945.
Captain, United States Army, 442nd Regimental Combat Team ("Go For Broke", "Nisei").
Silver Star, Purple Heart.
Li quens Rollant se jut desuz un pin (The Count Roland lies beneath a Pine) - Chanson de Roland In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid...
- Gilbert Chesterton, Lepanto  The captain of the month of May Was light of heart and this he did say: I shall die in April that you shall live in May.
 The waters were bitter the waters were cold The Germans entrenched in the hills, But their Captain was busy and their Captain was bold He made great their souls and made firm their wills.
A straight up the mountain assault, The hardest trick in the book Under German fire through the tangled wire The blood flowed down to the brook.
 He was the tallest man in the unit by far A tall German-American The men were Nisei, born in America Their Moms and their Dads in the can.
 Hyphenated and mistrusted were they not men Wanting to prove they were loyal So they answered the call at the time, when They were called to the trial.
 It was a sideshow in terms of the war Vienna had fallen to the Russians so grim: Back home it was all a bit of a bore But that meant nothing to them.
 The Captain of the Month of May Was seen with a letter, what did it say? It said Dear John, that's all I know But he smiled at him, and said, hi Joe.
 He trained them hard and he trained them well By the book like a German: He said, "we're going in to hell" "Keep it wired together, you men.
" Â "There's something called the angle of fire And it means your life Know where it is in the sickening gyre If you want to go home to your kids and your wife.
" Â They took the mountain Folgorito And Lombardy was free: The living saw the river, the living saw the Po Flowing free down to the sunlit sea.
 And in May the Russians took the Tiergarten, The Russians took the zoo, And free men all were heartened When Hitler his brains out, blew.
 And in Lombardy, Mussolini Knew the jig was up And was hanged with La Petacci On death they both did sup.
 But he was Don Juan of Austria, He was the County de Roland, He was a son of America And for freedom, he did stand.
 But we teach no more Lepanto Nor the Chanson of Roland But guys still to Hell must go And there they must make a stand.
 For the right or for the wrong To the widow it makes no difference She weeps so sore in the night that's long And is pensioned on your sufferance.
 Nothing's changed except the poet's song In rhyme and metre that's old hat Because when your life is hard and long You must keep time and that...
is that  Some mens' lives are shortened By the Maxim and the gun Others are unduly lengthened In the setting of the sun.
 But those who die young do not hate us And they have no envy, no, not any They know that sorrow is a magic bus The pain is fixed as an Epiphany.
 Instead they haunt us at the rising sun Or when the sun goes down: They are smiling and forever young In blue, or grey, or olive, or in brown.
 The captain of the month of May Was light of heart and this he did say: I shall die in April that you shall live in May!
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