Follow Me

Forewords

As the composer of this song, I dedicate it to the men and women serving in the United States Marines and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

To write this song, I was motivated and inspired by one of the most compassionate pictures that I have ever seen in my life:  One of the US Marines, in the midst of a chaotic situation and while performing his assigned duties on the other side of the world from his home, reached out to share his valuable possession with little children whom he had never met, nor whom he would ever likely see again.  

It was about 5:30 pm on April 29, 1975, the evening before the fall of Saigon, Vietnam, when we were in the Tan Son Nhut Airport, hoping to leave the country before the fall of Saigon.  After a long day that had begun about 3:30 am when we had first entered the main guarded entrance of the airport, enduring the incoming mortars and rockets, we were ordered and directed by the evacuation officials -- we didn’t know at the time who they were or what they were doing -- to move to a specified location at the airport.   There, we waited for about 30 minutes with no clues as to why we had been ordered to go there.  Suddenly, hundreds of the US Marine helicopters were coming toward us from the Pacific Ocean.   We were all panicked, scared, worried, and afraid, to say the least, because we did not know they were coming to help evacuate us.  Instead, we thought that the Marines came to fight another battle, especially when we saw each helicopter take off immediately after it landed, leaving the Marines right in front of us.  The Marines quickly ran out of the helicopters and immediately positioned themselves in such a way that we thought the fighting was about to start, with us caught in the middle of it.   The children were crying, and people were squeezing into the drainage ditches for a place to hide or lay down, hoping to be below the bullet lines should the battle start. As I observed one of the little girls near me who looked scared and was crying louder and louder, one of the young US Marines unsnapped the cover of his canteen.  He took out the canteen, opened it, and reached out to help the girl drink the water while softly rubbing the top of the little girl’s head as if to say that everything would be okay.  After she finished drinking, he gave it to another and they drank until his canteen was empty. Then he re-attached it to his waist strap/belt and moved right back to the exact position he had been in before — a fighting-ready position with an M-16 rifle in his hands; but his eyes kept watching the little girls.  That was the most amazing picture of care and compassion, and it became imprinted in my mind.  

Soon thereafter, we were organized into a small group of 20 to 30 people, ready on the ground for the helicopters to come back, land, and take us to the aircraft carriers, starting our journey to the United States.

The Marines were the first people who led and guided me and millions of others on our first rides to liberty and freedom.

I feel very fortunate and want to offer my sincere gratitude to this country and those who have contributed and sacrificed with their service for the freedom and liberty that we have been enjoying. I hope that the listeners will find the lyrics in this song to reaffirm the truth about United States of America and its people.

For the men and women serving this country, I just want to say, “Thanks.”

Duke Nguyen Browning  (May 2006)