"I am the Infantry--King of Battle! For two centuries I have kept our Nation safe, Purchasing freedom with my blood. To tyrants, I am the day of reckoning; to the oppressed, the hope for the future. Where the fighting is thick, there am I . . . . I am the Infantry! FOLLOW ME!
My bayonet . . . on the wings of power . . . keeps the peace worldwide. And despots, falsely garbed in freedom's mantle, falter . . . hide. My ally in the paddies and the forest . . . I teach, I aid, I lead. FOLLOW ME!
Where brave men fight . . . there fight I. In freedom's cause . . . I live, I die. From Concord Bridge to Heartbreak Ridge, from the Arctic to the Mekong, to the Caribbean . . . the King of Battle!
Always ready . . . then, now, and forever.
I am the Infantry! FOLLOW ME!"
— Excerpt from "I Am the Infantry" poem, author unknown
