Reply #17: I'll be observing and remembering, too [View All]

[pinboy3niner]

I knew more than 60 guys whose names are on the Wall, including two roommates--one of whom, Stephen Helden Doane, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

"Special people" is right, 11 Bravo--though somehow, that doesn't seem enough to do them justice.

My feelings about Memorial Day were expressed by someone else far better than I ever could:


"Save Them a Place," by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell

If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving

Be not ashamed to say
you loved them
though you may
or may not have always

Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.

And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
To call the war insane
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.


--Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
Written 1 January 1970
KIA 24 March 1970
Dak To, Vietnam