THE WALL OF FACES

Herald is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Centralia, IL.

I want to take the time and thank you for fighting for us, so that we could live our lives the American way. We as Americans will forever be in your debt. I can not thank you enough for the courage you showed and the way you defended America and all of its freedoms. It took a lot of leadership that we Americans look up to. This time was stressful for you to put everything aside and fight for our country. Thank you so much and rest in peace.

Herald, even though we never met, I just want you to know you will always be remembered. You gave the greatest sacrifice, your life, for what you believed in. Rest in peace and thank you for protecting the freedoms we enjoy today. A true American hero!

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

SOLDIER, SAILOR, AIRMAN, COAST GUARD, MARINE,
FROM ALL ACROSS THE LAND THEY CAME, EVERY RACE, EVERY CREED.
AS THIER FATHERS AND FOREFATHERS BEFORE THEM,
WHEN THEIR COUNTRY CALLED THEY STEPPED FORWARD.
ALBEIT AT A TIME WHEN THE NATION WAS EMBROILED IN BITTER DISCORD,
AT THE PRIME OF THEIR YOUNG LIVES, THEY DID NOT SHIRK FROM THE SPECTER OF WAR.
CAUGHT UP IN A POLITICAL MAELSTROM NOT OF THEIR MAKING,
THEY WERE HURLED ONWARD TO A RENDEZVOUS WITH HARDSHIP AND STRIFE.
EVERYDAY, ORDINARY AMERICAN MEN
THIS MONUMENT NOW STANDS BEFORE US,
ITS’ BOLD AND IMPOSING BEAUTY BESPEAKS A SOLEMN AND SILENT TRIBUTE.
BUT NO STRUCTURE, NO MATTER HOW GREAT, TRULY PAYS JUST TRIBUTE,
TO THE HONORED DEAD WHO’S NAMES ARE INSCRIBED THERE.
TO THE MAIMED, THE DISABLED, THE EMOTIONALLY SCARRED, THE MISSING IN ACTION,
THE SCAR OF THE VIETNAM WAR WILL NEVER HEAL.
TO THE YOUNG LIVES BARELY LIVED, TO THE YOUNG LOVES HARDLY LOVED,
TO THE WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THAT WE WILL NEVER KNOW,
DEAR GOD, LET THEIR HALLOWED MEMORY FOREVER BURN BRIGHT.
THE "WHY", OF VIETNAM MAY NEVER BE ANSWERED, THE SACRIFICE NEVER VINDICATED;
BUT LET NO ONE DARE QUESTION THE FIBER OF THE MEN AND WOMEN,
WHO ANSWERED THE CALL OF THE UNCERTAIN TRUMPET.
THEY RISKED AND LOST, LIFE AND LIMB TO SERVE THEIR COUNTRY.
THEY ARE THE MARK AND CALIBER BY WHICH GREAT NATIONS ARE MEASURED.