Van of Valor

The Long Road Home

“For Shania Stapp, her grandfather was a ghost in the family history…”

[Verse 1]
Granddaddy’s picture on the mantlepiece
A uniform, a ribbon, a shadow underneath
Mama said he fought in two different wars
Came home with demons knockin’ at his door
Twenty-seven months in a prison camp
Never really talked about the things he saw, man
Took his own life before I was born
Just a name we carried, a flag that was torn

[Chorus]
But I needed to know who he was
Beyond the pain and the silence and the loss
A hero ain’t just how a man falls down
It’s the weight that he carried on that higher ground
From Chipyong-ni to Camp One’s chains
Eight hundred days of Korean rain
They tried to break him but his blood runs in my veins
Now I’m bringing my granddaddy home again

[Verse 2]
Billings, Montana, Daisy Dukes Saloon
Serving drinks, watching the afternoon
Roll in slow when a van pulled up outside
Had Purple Heart names painted on the side
Lauren from Harvard, anthropologist mind
Said “we travel the country collecting the stories
Of Gold Star families, the pain and the glory”
I walked up and asked her, barely found my voice
“Can you help me tell the world my grandfather was more
Than just the way he died? More than just the pain?
I got a son who needs to know his great-granddaddy’s name”

[Chorus]
‘Cause I needed to know who he was
Beyond the pain and the silence and the loss
A hero ain’t just how a man falls down
It’s the weight that he carried on that higher ground
From Chipyong-ni to Camp One’s chains
Eight hundred days of Korean rain
They tried to break him but his blood runs in my veins
Now I’m bringing my granddaddy home again

[Verse 3]
February ’51, outnumbered five to one
The Indianheads held that line like a smoking gun
Chipyong-ni they called the Gettysburg of the East
My granddaddy stood his ground before he was released
Into enemy hands, May 18th
They shipped him north to where the cold don’t leave

[Verse 4]
Camp 1, listen, this ain’t no regular cell
C.I.A. files tell the story, man, the truth from hell
Segregation first, break the unity
Interrogation digging deep into his humanity
Labeled “Reactionary” ’cause he wouldn’t bend
Solitary confinement in a hole with no end
Cigarette burns on his skin for resistance
Standing at attention, forced to keep his distance
Medicine withheld, food was a tool
Cooperate with indoctrination or play the fool
Autobiographies, self-criticism scripts
Trying to reprogram how his spirit ticks
Eight hundred days of psychological war
And we wonder why he couldn’t shake it after the war

[Bridge]
They said he had demons, but now I understand
Demons were the men with a systematic plan
He survived the battle, survived the cage
But some wounds take generations to age
My son will know his great-granddaddy’s name
Was written in sacrifice, written in flame

[Final Chorus]
Now I know who he was
Not just the pain, not just the loss
A hero ain’t just how a man falls down
It’s the weight that he carried on that higher ground
Chipyong-ni to Camp One’s chains
Eight hundred days of Korean rain
They tried to break him but his blood runs in these veins
And we’re bringing our granddaddy home again

[Outro]
His name is going on the Van of Valor now. Buried at Little Bighorn, but his story… his story is finally coming home.

If you or a veteran you know is struggling, dial 988 then press 1. Or text 838255.

For Shania – The PFC Stapp Story Written in Flame w/ Van of Valor