THE WALL OF FACES

Dear PFC Kevin Corcoran, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter

I don't know you but being from the same town of Garwood, I have to thank you for serving our country..

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"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 you loved them....
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...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heroes lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers

Dear Kevin-
I carried your name with me, in my pocket, for a week. For a whole week, it was my assignment to carry your name with me. For an honors student, that was easy enough. But just carrying your name started to not be enough. I mean, who was this person that I carried around with me everywhere I went? And each day I wanted to know more about you. Finally the day came that my English teacher told us why we had names of unknown men in our pockets. We were going to build a wall, our own memorial wall, to make sure that all the veterans are remembered. So we all went into the computer lab typed in the name of our "pocket man." I was excited; I was finally going to know who Kevin Corcoran was. When your Website came up on my screen it was rather disappointing to find that only a few paragraphs had been dedicated to your 18 years of life. The continuation of the assignment was to print out your name rubbing and then bring a memento to honor you. As teenagers often do, I forgot all about my assignment until Sunday night. It could have been very simple. Write a letter seal it up, and set in under the wall, and no one would know that I hadn't really done the work. But then I realized, you were a real person. You did all the things that I do everyday, and you had that taken away from you. I can't imagine giving my life up for one cause. I wish I knew you, or that I could do something to make sure that you are honored. My English teacher made a point to say that at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. there are thousands upon thousands of names etched on those granite tablets, and not all of them are remembered. I want you to be remembered, and I want to you to be admired, and I want you to be honored, and I want you to know that someone thinks you are incredibly brave, and I want you to know that you meant something to someone. Since I don't know who you were, or what your life was like, I want to guarantee that to you by saying that that someone will be me. You're no longer my pocket man; you've become a real person who means a whole lot to someone else. Thank you for doing what you did. "I will never leave you or forsake you." Hebrews 16:5

You gave all you had for this country. Thank you for your courage, honor, and sacrifice.