File:Poem, "Sugar Loaf Hill" by Louis J. Maloof, 1945 (16266424405).jpg

English: This poem was presented to Lemuel Shepherd who served as Maloof's Commanding General on Okinawa.

"In France? Verdun? O never like this day! Stars without light shine down on Sugar Loaf; And where I once saw men who prayed to live Are scattered leaves that lay without their stems. Trees without branches mourn beside the dead, Whose bard no color could he find in words: Art without life swept fiercely up the slopes, And air refused to breathe the noiseless sound That whispered that the day had just been won.

In Flanders' Fields? O look upon these rows! On Okinawa Shima taps away The solemn silence of this sacrifice, Where free-born men made freedom free and paid For it! Now twice the trust is tied in hands No longer warm, but holy in their dust: Blind is the soul that sins against the pledge These men have made, and leaves the world to seek Once more the peaceless roads to shameful war.

The Western Front? O see these tears of blood! Hearts without love begot this burning hill, Where shell meets shell, and face meets face, with fire And knife! No smiles are seen to strike the sweep Of death a teasing blow as men drive on... O dreams that fade into the years behind To dim the darkness of this day in me, (No thing on earth is firm beyond decay) Remove the pain-but let the memory stay!"

From the Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr. Collection (COLL/1113), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections

OFFICIAL USMC PHOTOGRAPH