I
am closing my fifty years of military service. When I joined the army,
even before the turn of the century it was the fulfillment of all my
boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I
took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have
long since vanished, but
I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads
of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die;
they just fade away. And like the old soldier of that
ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old
soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that
duty. Goodbye.
我即將結束五十年的軍旅生涯。我從軍是在本世紀開始之前，而這是我童年的希望與夢想的實現。自從我在西點軍校的教練場上宣誓以來，這個世界已經經過多次變化，而我的希望與夢想早已消逝，但我仍記著當時最流行的一首軍歌詞，極為自豪地宣示「老兵不死，只是凋謝」。就像這首歌中的老兵，一位想盡一已之責的老兵，而上帝也賜予光輝使他能看清這一項責任，而我現在結束了軍旅生涯，而逐漸凋謝。再見了！
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