The Unsung Hero was written in 1982 at the request of a retiring CMSgt who felt our wives deserved a tribute similar in spirit to A Last Salute, a poem traditionally used to honor departing air crew members. 

 

Using my wife Sandy and our 12 years of "good-byes" as a model, I sought to put into words how absent husbands feel, though seldom adequately express. Much to my surprise, and more to Sandy's, who suggested the possibility of Divine inspiration, the fruits of my labor did seem to strike a respondent chord in the hearts of its intended audience. 

 

In addition to it's use as a departing wives tribute at McGuire, the Unsung Hero later appeared in the Military Airlift Command's (MAC) Airlift journal, once in 1985 and again in 1989. Also used as a departure gift for wives at Dover AFB, Delaware and Altus AFB, Oklahoma, the poem eventually took on a life of its own. Witness the 1991 report of a Pan Am 747 Captain who advised that the Arkansas Air National Guard had presented copies to its wives in the mid-1980s. More recently the Unsung Hero appeared in the August 1995 issue of the Airline Pilot Magazine.

 

Having passed along copies to most of the Pan Am and other airline pilots I have flown with since my AF retirement in 1987, I found that the Unsung Hero had strong appeal not only for military wives, but their civilian counterparts as well. Not only was the poem warmly received, more often then not it ended up framed and hanging in an honored place at home. 

 

With this thought in mind, it is my fervent hope that the present signed version of this humble tribute may come to the attention of a much larger audience of equally deserving Unsung Heroes .

 

God Bless, Speed and Keep

 

Copyright, RFHay, 1995