Continuing my account of grief over the loss of fellow combatants: What others did not know was that the outer roughness they perceived in me concealed an interior anguish that will never diminish. Like the curse of Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI), the grieving over the loss of buddies on the battlefield will never cease.
So the song “My Buddy,” music written by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Gus Kahn, has profound meaning for me. The song was published in 1922 and was presumably based on experience from World War I. So characteristic of the way we men express ourselves, the song never mentions love and downplays the pain of loss. That makes it, for me, all the more moving. Here are the lyrics:
Nights are long since you went away,
I think about you all through the day,
My buddy, my buddy, no buddy quite so true.
Miss your voice, the touch of your hand,
Just long to know that you understand,
My buddy, my buddy, your buddy misses you.
Miss your voice, the touch of your hand,
Just long to know that you understand,
My buddy, my buddy, your buddy misses you.
End of quote. That brings back so many memories of buddies long gone. The bond endures.
Tom Glenn, Writer 