{"id":5124,"date":"2014-03-30T17:48:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=5124"},"modified":"2019-08-03T03:39:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T10:39:17","slug":"a-kriegies-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=5124","title":{"rendered":"A Kriegie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer –Ralph Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, God, I ask of you in humble prayer,<\/span><\/p>\n

As I lie in torment far from home,<\/p>\n

Keep safe my loving family over there;<\/p>\n

Make lighter theirs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthis burden<\/p>\n

Which they bear.<\/p>\n

I ask not why this plan for war was lain,<\/p>\n

Nor question your divine authority,<\/p>\n

But couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you have had the flak refrain<\/p>\n

That last time I went down to<\/p>\n

Strafe a train?<\/p>\n

Oh, God, just slightly overflow thy cup,<\/p>\n

And speed me from this vermin-prison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bed.<\/p>\n

Please, God, release me from<\/p>\n

This land of Krupp<\/p>\n

Before these God-damned bedbugs eat me up!<\/p>\n

Note: Ralph wrote this under a dim night light, on toilet paper in the German prison camp at Moosburg. He said the bedbugs had chewed his wrists, neck, and ankles to a “painful mass of itching misery” and forced him from his bunk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, God, I ask of you in humble prayer, As I lie in torment far from home, Keep safe my loving family over there; Make lighter theirs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthis burden Which they bear. I ask not why this plan for war was lain, Nor question your divine authority, But couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you have had the flak refrain That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[533,1,397],"tags":[545],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tQeJ-1kE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5475,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=5475","url_meta":{"origin":5124,"position":0},"title":"Ralph Hamilton Biography","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Ralph Eugene Hamilton (1918-1999) was born on September 22, 1918, in Malin, Oregon, where his father, Edward, farmed alfalfa. Eventually, his mother, Nell, inherited some land on Signal Hill near Long Beach from her father, Clarence Coseboom, so the family moved there, and in the 1920s Ralph enrolled in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theswillbucket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/PHOTO_RalphsP-51AtDuxford_MED-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":885,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=885","url_meta":{"origin":5124,"position":1},"title":"After training at Strother Field, Kansas, 1944","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"(More on Lt. Ralph Hamilton)","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5189,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=5189","url_meta":{"origin":5124,"position":2},"title":"Friesen Press Announces “Be All You Can Be” by Shawn E. Hamilton","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.einpresswire.com\/press-releases\/preview\/1871430 VETERAN PLEADS: DO NOT BLINDLY SACRIFICE YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR COUNTRY! Author Publishes WWII Pilot Father's Legacy and Warning SACRAMENTO, CA, USA, October 19, 2014 \/EINPresswire.com\/ -- SACRAMENTO, 19 October, 2014\u00e2\u20ac\u201dThe belief that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s noble to support the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s military regardless of circumstances will perhaps always prevail. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternative Military History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternative Military History","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=533"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.einpresswire.com\/image\/medium\/5951\/shawn-hamilton.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1508,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=1508","url_meta":{"origin":5124,"position":3},"title":"Interview with Ralph Hamilton: On politics, warfare, the 60s, Taiwan, and crashing his P-51 in Germany","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The interview can be found at the bottom of the WW2 page.","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5105,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=5105","url_meta":{"origin":5124,"position":4},"title":"“Be All You Can Be”","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Released on March 24th, 2014 through Friesen Press: \u00c2\u00a0Be All You Can Be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is something sad about a person who blindly sacrifices his life \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfor his country,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for he is unaware of the real issues. If a person can grasp the truth about war, it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but color\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternative Military History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternative Military History","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=533"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5700,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=5700","url_meta":{"origin":5124,"position":5},"title":"Blog Talk Radio: Rick Staggenborg Interviews Shawn Hamilton","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Rick Staggenborg\u00c2\u00a0 Interviews Shawn Hamilton, (click hyperlink) who discusses his father, Ralph Hamilton, a P-51 Mustang pilot during WW2. Shot down over Crailsheim, Germany in 1944, the elder Hamilton became a prisoner of Germany and subsequently an artist and Soldier for Peace. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=546"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theswillbucket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/PHOTO_RalphsP-51AtDuxford_MED.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5124"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}