BY LAWRENCE “MACK” HALL

Perhaps the duty officer had it in for them:

Some privates, a corporal, maybe a sergeant

Grousing about pulling a night watch

And in a Jewish cemetery – why?

No one agrees if they were temple police

Or Romans, for special duty detached

What time they were posted, how many there were

Or how into silence they were bullied or bribed

And no one much cares because

While heroes and saints get written up in books

Poor squaddies get only disapproving looks