Now that the original lyrics have been posted somebody asked me why I did not use the reference to Afghanistan in the last stanza. It is true Kipling was talking about a soldier dying in Afghanistan, and I intentionally left that out. My publisher, (Merf Music in Nashville) tells me they want lyrics as universal as possible if a song is to be sold for sync placement in TV or movies. They don't need universal near so much if you are writing for another artist but in sync work references to names, dates, places and specific incidents are strictly frowned upon. This song already crosses that line in the title alone so I was trying to minimize that to keep the publisher as happy as possible.