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Writer's pictureHeshy R

Daily Lyric: UNSUNG HERO

He has no stripes or bars

He wears no silver stars

He never won any medal or citation

He’s at the bottom of the ladder

But his spirit’s never shattered

Even though his is the toughest situation


He does all the dirty work

His duty he’ll never shirk

And he goes to sleep without reaping any credit

He’ll defeat the enemy

He’ll destroy their whole army

It’s all in the news but I doubt you’ve read it


He flies Hercules and Hawkeyes

He fires Chaparrals and Redeyes

And other things that no one thinks about

He walks a hundred miles on foot

Through sun, rain, sand, and soot

But believe me it’s him we can’t do without


We will never know his name

He will never claim his fame

His flag will never fly unfurled

He has no part in folklore

Though he’s fought in every war

This is the unsung hero of the world


©2023 The Hesh Inc.

Israeli soldiers playing checkers in the field
Here's one for the grunts. (Yes, even the grunts get their faces pixelized for security reasons.)

This one was written in November 1985, when I was taking my advanced training course as part of the IDF Artillery Corps. Endless shifts on sentry duty were par for the course, and one fine afternoon as I observed, from a distance, my buds being marched around the tent area, I thought of how these guys—myself among them, eventually—would form the backbone of the fighting forces on the ground, doing all the hard work and exposed to the line of fire with none of the credit reserved for generals and politicians. So I decided to write a song for "the little guys," with the initial version scrawled on the inside of the sentry box. The music was (aptly) inspired by Donovan's "Universal Soldier." Never recorded or performed.

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