A song for heroes

Nov. 23, 2002
By MIKE HUDSON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Bob Slaughter wrote the words years ago, after he began his effort to get the world to honor the sacrifices of D-Day veterans.

The Roanoke D-Day veteran wrote of a maelstrom raging as "a mighty Crusade sailed under a darkened shroud." He wrote of landing craft scraping sand and depositing infantrymen onto an expanse raked by "streams of fire from stuttering guns." And he wrote of the telegrams home: "We regret to inform you your son is dead."

He'd work on it, put it aside for a year or so, then come back to it for rewriting.

He never gave much thought to what to do with it. He was too busy fighting the fight that resulted in the dedication of a National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

But about a year ago, he got a visit from Frank Emerson, a Vietnam-era veteran from Wytheville who wanted to meet Slaughter.

Emerson had heard about Slaughter and asked a mutual friend to introduce them. "I just wanted to shake the man's hand," Emerson recalls.

During the visit, however, Slaughter learned that Emerson was a songwriter and performer. Slaughter pulled out a copy of his poem, "A New Dawn Forever," and gave it to him.

Maybe you can do something with it sometime," Slaughter said offhandedly.

He'd pretty much forgotten about giving the poem to Emerson until a few months later, when the phone rang and it was Emerson. He had indeed done something with the poem. He had taken Slaughter's words of suffering and sacrifice and adapted them to music.

Slaughter listened to a tape and liked what he heard: a solemn military march with Celtic and folk influences, driven by Emerson's voice and backed by a tin whistle, an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar, a snare drum and a traditional Irish drum called a bodhran.

"I thought it was great," Slaughter says. "My poem was just so-so until he put the music to it."

The two are so pleased with their creation that they are offering it for sale - with the idea that profits will go to the financially ailing D-Day Memorial.

It may make a few dollars for the memorial, they say, and perhaps even help inspire others to make the kind of big donations that will get the memorial out of debt and bankruptcy proceedings.

"It might put a burr under the saddle of somebody who could write a check for $5 million and save the memorial outright," Emerson says.

Emerson has lived in Wytheville since 1986, and has worked as a singer, actor and commercial voice-over artist. He also co-authored a booklet on Wythe County's experiences during the Civil War and is working on a book about an
1864 Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vt.

Emerson and Slaughter pooled their money to pay about $1,100 to press 1,000
CDs. Each includes a 6-minute, 40-second version of "A New Dawn Forever"; a
dramatic reading of Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower's D-Day message and
of Laurence Binyon's poem "For The Fallen"; and a rendition of Thomas Moore's
song "The Minstrel Boy."

The CD costs $5 and can be purchased at the D-Day Memorial or by sending $5
plus $1 for shipping to Frank Emerson, 490 E. North Street, Wytheville, VA
24382, or Bob Slaughter, 4372 Kirkwood Ave. S.W., Roanoke, VA 24018.