Radney Foster - Angel Flight

Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.

- Inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington Virgina

War is a serious business, in which young men and women sometimes die. Some lie in foreign soil, far from their loved one's reach. Some are never found, and are listed as "missing" - a wound that never quite heals for those they left behind. Lately, most have been brought back home, to help their families find closure, and for us to honor.

But not to forget.

Country music is perhaps unique among this nation's art forms in that it doesn't forget. Radney Foster sings of that final ride home, of those who make the trip, the quick and the dead.

 

Angel Flight (songwriters: Radney Foster, Darden Smith)

All I ever wanted to do was fly
Leave this world and live in the sky
I left the C130 out of Fort Worth town
I go up some days I don't wanna come down

Well I fly that plane called the Angel Flight
Come on brother you're with me tonight
Between Heaven and earth you're never alone
On the Angel Flight
Come on brother I'm taking you home

I love my family and I love this land
But tonight this flight's for another man
We do what we do because we heard the call
Some gave a little, but he gave it all

I fly that plane called the Angel Flight
Come on brother you're with me tonight
(Come on brother you're with me tonight)
Between Heaven and earth you're never alone
On the Angel Flight
Come on brother I'm taking you home
Come on brother I'm taking you home

Well, the cockpit's quiet and the stars are bright
Feels kinda like church in here tonight
It don't matter where we touch down
On the Angel Flight its sacred ground

I fly that plane called the Angel Flight
Gotta hero riding with us tonight
Between Heaven and earth you're never alone
On the Angel Flight
Come on brother I'm taking you home
Come on brother I'm taking you home
Come on brother I'm taking you home
Come on brother I'm taking you home

This Memorial Day weekend, remember those who gave that last full measure of devotion for the rest of us. Those that came home, and those that didn't.