THE WALL OF FACES

Went to the wall in D.C. found Louie's name, it was so sad, he was just a great guy.

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

Louie and I attended high school together and shared a deep friendship. I was a year older but no matter he was my pal. We hunted, fished, took a drink together, fought once in a while and chased girls. We both served army reserve basic, AIT and BUT and when the war got bad, Louie got mad and re-uped, RA. He got shipped off to Viet Nam and I a career in the airlines. I had been working less than a month when I got word he was missing, presumed dead. I flew over VietNam 3 times a week for the next two years as a flight engineer for Burma Airways. Coming back was always at night and looking out the cockpit could see the firefights going on. I always thought about you Louie and prayed for your soul.
I think of you often and miss you pal.

...from The Press Democrat newspaper, Sunday, March 16, 1986

Louis Grothe was a good friend of mine, not to mention he was a distant cousin. But between the two of us, he and I didn't think we were very distant. We used to go hunting and fishing up in Scott's creek, at Goat Rock, with Pete and sometimes Doug Vann, and we always had a great time.
I miss him and would very much like to have seen just how he would turned out. He was extremely smart, and probably the funniest friend that I had.
I think about him often, and I hope too see hiom one day. I hope he is having fun, driving his model A, and acting as goofy as he always did.
See you soon, Louie
Barney Forbes