Thanks.
If you are able, save for them a place inside of you.
And save one backward glance when you are leaving,
for the places they can no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say that you loved them,
though you may not have always.
Take what they have left and what they have taught you
with their dying and keep it your own.
And in a time, when men decide and feel safe
to call war insane, take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes you left behind.
Written by Major Michael Davis O’Donnell, helicopter pilot; 1 January 1970,
Dak To, Vietnam; KIA on March 24, 1970 (originally MIA until 1978)