Memorial Day

REMEMBER

If you are able,
Save a place for them
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