THE WALL OF FACES

Willie, on this 38th anniversary of your death, I want you to know that I think about you, Lyons, LT, Doc Hobbs and Hanlan just about every day. While I survived the blast, a part of me died with each of you.

Rest in Peace.
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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

Thank you soldier, for unselfishly putting your life on the line, for the sake of others. Displaying tremendous bravery on the battlefield you gave your life for America’s sake. My name is T.J. Kaupp and I am with the Gridley High School Posting Project. America is the great nation that it is today because of people like you. I can only hope that if I am put in a similar situation I will have the courage you possessed in laying down your life for Americans.

I was the vehicle commander on C-26, the vehicle on which Willie served. He was relatively new to the platoon, and I remember him as a quiet young man, regretfully, or not, we didn't have time to become very close.

I am, also, the sole survivor of the six man crew, and, while Willie and I never became close, I think about him, and mourn his death, daily.

I wish to extend my condolences to Willie's family and friends, and wish them peace in the consolation that he served honorably and died in the service of his country.