Before You Go" - WWII Vets

[Lee Baucum]

Perhaps you've already seen this. I just received it in an e-mail today and wanted to share it with you guys.

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood! Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, FL eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event. He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly. At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. He drove off, but then thinking about what the man had said, he backed up. Then he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you." Then the old soldier began to cry. "That really got to me," Bierstock says.

Cut to today.
Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach and a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band, have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die. "If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica." The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day.
I thought we needed to thank them." The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren. "It made me cry,"wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and OmahaBeach.
"I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."
Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington.

Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.
God Bless EVERY veteran and THANK YOU to those of you veterans who may receive this!

Click the link below to hear the song and see the pictures and then share it and send it to everyone you know!:


Click here and then click the link on that page to hear the song and see the slides.

Lee, from South Texas

[Ben Lawson]

That was GREAT, thank you Lee.

[Howard Tate]

Very moving, hard to keep a dry eye.

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Howard

[Bill Hatcher]

That really was the "Greatest Generation" as they have been called.

I did not care for the image of the Bush basher with all the "Bush Lied" and other anti war posters. Totally inappropriate in a WWII tribute, and not balanced with an image of support.

One day the outstanding soldiers who are fighting in Iraq will receive the full support and thanks that they deserve.

[Jerry Overstreet]

Thanks Lee. We can never thank these heroes enough. It is sad to think that their efforts are taken for granted. Best Wishes to these brave vets and serving members everywhere.

[Barry Blackwood]

A heartfelt tribute, thanks.

[pdl20]

It's a little hard to see and type right now but i thank God and our service men and women for giving their all in that war,i lost an uncle in Austria and he was never found .i hurt everyday for what my grand parents went through and others like them that never saw their loved ones again.

[Jim Landers]

Amen.