If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you,
and save one backwards glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can no longer go.
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 feel safe and decide
to call war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.
Maj. Michael Davis O’Donnell
1 January, 1970
Dak To, Viet Nam
May God, in His infinite wisdom and loving mercy, see fit to bless our nation, and allow us to be worthy of their sacrifice.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.