I just wanted to share a poem that my father kept on a 3×5 card on his desk that I now keep on mine. This is for all of the warriors who have come home, whose strength I will never question. Because even those who stand rough and ready, who answer a call of service beyond themselves; they too deserve to grieve and mourn for those they have lost and not be questioned in their pain even those for whom it is too much to bear.
If you are able,
save 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
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 1 January 1970 Dak To, Vietnam
MIA March 1970 Confirmed KIA 2001