The handwriting is my mother's notation describing the soldier pictured on this old photo postcard. He was her cousin, Hewitt Swearingen, who died in action in France during WWI. She was an infant when he was killed but she grew up loving stories of him told to her by his father, Ernest.
She always honored Hewitt's memory on Veteran's Day.
Now it's my turn..........
A music video of Motörhead: 1916 from the album 1916. This song is composed by Lemmy Kilmister.(uploaded by undeadwarrior69)
1916 - Lyrics
16 years old when I went to the war,
To fight for a land fit for heroes,
God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
Chasing my days down to zero,
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,
And I never did get any older,
But I knew at the time that a year in the line,
Is a long enough life for a soldier,
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names,
And we added two years to our ages,
Eager for life and ahead of the game,
Ready for history's pages,
And we brawled and we fought and we whored 'til we stood,
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder,
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun,
And that's what you are when you're soldiers,
I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
And I fell by his side, and that's how we died,
Clinging like kids to each other,
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
And I wept as his body grew colder,
And I called for my mother and she never came,
Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame,
The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
And now there's nobody remembers our names,
And that's how it is for a soldier.
.
