Off Topic but ....
 

Wow...

I just looked up a few of my high-school buddies... wow

Thanks Robin

I never stop wondering why I made it home and they didn't.....

By the grace of God... Harry

Incredible. I just looked up the two friends from my home town who are on the wall. Played football with both of them. Thank you for that post Robin.

I went throught OCS in 1967. Often wondered why I was sent to Korea instead of Viet Nam

Harry, there is no answer to that question. Some guys are guilt-ridden for the rest of their lives - don't be one of those guys... there is no explanation - it's just the way the chips fell.
To those guys who didn't make the supreme sacrifice I have said it before... Maybe there is a reason you came home and maybe there isn't, but if there is a reason don't waste the gift - don't waste a minute of your life - honor their memory.

The Wall and a tribute to those who didn't come back
 

Thank you Robin. Two of my best friends are remembered with their names on that black wall in D.C. The 1960's and the Vietnam War were a turbulent time for our Country. We can look back and possibly judge the mistakes that were made that caused those 58,323 names to have been put there, also the MIA and POW personnel that may never be accounted for.

Those names are honored whenever we stand for the Flag and remove our hats at a parade or do the same when the National Anthem is played or sung at a sports event or other public venue. We also honor them when we buy a VFW buddy poppy, fly the flag from our homes, and when we see a Veteran and not just on the 11th of November, thank him for his service to America.

Two songwriters of note came from the 1960's: Bob Dylan and Kris Krisstofferson, the later was a Ranger, the former, somehow managed not to have to serve. No matter now, but Bob Dylan wrote, in my opinion anyway, the best song that depicts the tragic events any war can cause- he entitled it "John Brown"-- Semper Fi!!

Francis: Another songwriter that comes to mind is Pete Seeger who wrote "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" My two boys were both adopted through Catholic Charities. My oldest son, Billy, was able to find and meet his birth mother. The name of his birth father, Terry Lynn Anton, is on the Wall at Panel 17E Line 119. Terry was 19 when he lost his life in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam. He had been "in country" for exactly three months. He was a PFC, C Company, 4th Batallion, 9th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, USARV. A "Manchu". Now we're buying cars and other knick knacks from the damned place. These boys (and a few girls) were the Best of the Best, gone to soldiers every one and now to graveyards every one. When will we ever learn?

Best Regards, George

Row 5E- 63 in the middle
 

Possibly we all have a family member or close friend whose name is forever etched on the onyx Wall. Gone but never forgotten.

The late poet Joyce Kilmer wrote this during WW1: "In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet, there is a new-made grave today, Built by never a spade or pick, Yet covered with earth ten meters thick. There lie many fighting men, dead in their youthful prime. Never to laugh or love again, Nor taste the summertime"--

Joyce Kilmer, famed for his poem circa 1912 "Trees", was reportedly shot by a German sniper on the morning of Armistice day, 1918. Communication was not effective back then, apparently the sniper was not yet informed, who can say, maybe he would have shot anyway.

There was a good sized contigent of lads from the Queen City that rode the trains in Northern Michigan for two months of YMCA camp. Each Sunday we had a non-denominational Church service at the small chapel by a point on the Northern arm of that vast lake. I remember yet today the sermon about the "Yellow Butterflies" and the Mother who lost her only unfound son in that "War To End All Wars"- when she was there in D.C. in 1921 when President Harding dedicated the Tomb Of The Unknowns, she saw some yellow butterflies flying near the monument.