Month of Music Day 10 Pillar Echelon Fireproof You know it's time for us to step it up Another level now 'cause we finished warming up So we rise up elevate to maintain fill up with octane And fan the flame we regain all the names The enemy took away And like a green beret we will lead the way Into battle so have no fear we will draw near So that we can persevere like a gondolier We headed straight to the top nonstop Set shop at the top of the Rock You'll feel the aftershock after we rock the spot Cause you forgot these soldiers won't turn and walk We take hard knocks come back for more Cause we're hardcore we fight for the One who died for [you]* And like Saigon we're on the frontlines And we carry on to the end times [Chorus:] Now that it's on, we're out in the front of this marathon With our armor on, stay strong we drive on (drive on) Our echelon pressin' on 'til we reach the top And you know we don't stop (our echelon) Now that it's on We're on the enemy's hit list I'm hopin' you get this You're takin' a risk when you resist the one who made you exist Evolutionists we got love for you too but we're breakin' down Walls seeking out the truth I'm a soldier in this army of One Like I told ya the battle's already won So about face move outta the way I gotta pray for you And this is how we do [Chorus:x4] Now that it's on, we're out in the front of this marathon With our armor on, stay strong we drive on (drive on) Our echelon pressin' on 'til we reach the top And you know we don't stop (our echelon) Now that it's on

My Take:

I can honestly say that I fell in love with this song walking beside a 30-foot cargo container. Yes, I just said that I fell in love with this song, standing beside a 30-foot cargo container. But, not just any cargo container. Let me explain. It was the summer of 2002. I'd just bought a CD sampler with some hip, now, with it bands on it. PAX 217, Kutless, and others. One of them was a band called Pillar. There'd been some buzz in the music community that these guys were about to explode, and I wanted to see what the big deal was. I thought that their single 'Fireproof' was adequate justification for purchasing the full album, and my local Christian bookstore had it on sale for $9.99, so it was 'natch. Like Skillet before, this was a find. They lived up to the hype. I instantly loved the strait-forward love-it-or-leave-it message of 'Indivisible.' 'Further' is such a good song, but completely overlooked. That almost made the list. But it didn't. Later that Summer, I got the call to go to Kuwait. Not a fun time to be had, at all. Among the possessions that I would take, an iPod, chock full of music from my collection. In that collection, the still new Pillar album. Though I didn't listen to the iPod all that much, I did crack it open when I was feeling lonely. I read a magazine before I left that said that one of the band members was in the Army before he became a rap-rock legend. There was something on that album that I didn't really listen to that much that had some kind of Army cadence or something. I was walking back the three football field's length between the mess hall and our tents. In the middle of that, there were about five 30-foot containers lengthwise filled with stuff with which they were building the camp. That's when I heard something familiar. In between 'Just to Get By' and 'Echelon,' there is a very soft audio of a group of military folks jogging in cadence. For somebody walking in a very cold, very windy, very sandy foreign country, I found the thing I hated so much in the America comforting. I took hold of it, and embraced my memories, even of the hard times. It was that song that I thought of whenever I thought of my time in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Walking in freezing cold, wind in my face. Full from the excellent mess from the giant warehouse that we called a mess hall. Listening to my iPod, with it's encouraging song, a reminder of home, of my Country, and how I was so lucky to be chosen to defend it. *Not actually said, but implied.

status: published
author: John Stansbury
cms: wordpress
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  similarterms: echelon song walking drive army mess -foot love cargo container ipod album pillar music time full thought strong 'til pressin