Die in a Pile of Brass

By SGT Awesome

Everybody wants to be a hero as a child, whether it be Batman, Superman or Han Solo. Yet while most people eventually grow out of this phase, there are certain people who grow up and that feeling never leaves.

It’s not a need to dress up in tights and prowl the streets looking for crime.

Nor does it necessarily send them on the road to become a Police Officer or Fireman or Soldier. It’s not even a want. It’s just an internal calling to stand ready to face down evil if evil is ever so unlucky as to run across them. It is an innate need to be ready at all times, and a willingness to do whatever it takes, no matter the personal cost, to make sure that evil does not win that day. 

In my eyes the prayer “Lord, make me fast and accurate. Let my aim be true and my hand faster than those who would seek to destroy me. Grant me victory over my foes and those that wish to do harm to me and mine. Let not my last thought be “If only I had my gun”; and Lord if today is truly the day that You call me home, let me die in a pile of brass” is not a prayer to a higher external power, but a prayer to one’s self; to that inner childhood hero you aspired to be who remembers that for good to triumph over evil, someone must step forward.

It is an invocation of confidence that all the individual moments of your life have led you to be ready; that you will succeed where most would fail.

It is a wish that in all the chaos of the universe, your life will have meaning. It is a wish that if the moment shall strike, you will stand tall where others would fall.

It is a reminder to always be mindful of your actions, for your actions today will pay dividends tomorrow. It is a reminder that the easy road is not always the correct road traveled.

It is an acceptance of fate.

It is knowing that sometimes the good guy doesn’t win, but if that is what must be, that at the very least you will know that you will have no regrets.

It is an absolute truth. It is the knowledge that there are certain things in this world worth your life. It is the knowledge that your sacrifice, which may never be individually recognized, will never be forgotten.

It is an eternal homage to all warriors of the past. To those who bled for mere inches of ground, who stood firm against insurmountable odds, who vowed to come home with their shields—or on them.

4 Comments

1. 

   Gregory

   December 25, 2012 at 9:53 pm

   Give me liberty or give me a pile of brass!

   Reply
2. 

   wobly

   January 2, 2013 at 4:38 pm

   You should see the looks I get when I wear this shirt out.
   BTW, I like how the rounds in the back-lower-right help to break up any “printing” of my .45 sticking out. Thanks, RU!

   Reply
3. 

   leftoftheboom

   January 9, 2013 at 10:51 pm

   Can you put the last part on a dog tag. It is a good prayer and would be nice in a personal format.

   Reply
4. 

   James Rush

   June 6, 2013 at 10:28 pm

   This shirt would be even better if you could get the print done on the Back and a Logo over the left side on the front. Just saying. J

   Reply