As a teenager in the late 60s, I lived near USAF Greenham Common. My family befriended many of the servicemen based there. This poem was written by one of them, whilst he was serving in Vietnam. He went back there, and we never saw or heard of him again. I thought it deserved a wider airing.

AMMO by AFC 18756330 Ronald Brown, 1969

I work with bombs both day and night,
And stand and shake with awful fright.
My past is short, my future's bleak,
I'll never last another week.
My friends are dead or dying fast,
I don't know how long my luck will last.
Death may come in several ways,
From gas or bombs with short delays,
There's Sarin gas or TNT,
Or fragment bombs to murder me.
They say that nerve gas works just great,
Five short minutes and it's too late,
Of course blood gas isn't so fast,
Fifteen minutes you can last,
There's white phospherous and thermate too,
They just sear and burn holes in you.
You know that you are bound to lose,
So you get a bottle and start to booze.
You drink all day and drink all night,
You go on duty still half tight.
If the bombs don't do it, just wait and see,
THIS DAMNED BOTTLE WILL FINISH ME!!!!!!!!!!