THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrance from your childhood friend James Stephenson is especially poignant. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us.

Sergeant Alvis Thurman Barrington Jr., Served with Company A, 101st Aviation Battalion, 101st Aviation Group, 101st Airborne Division, United States Army Vietnam.

Barry and I were childhood playmates in Hunterdale Va. Hunterdale was a wonderful town to have come of age in. He and I spent many days in his front yard playing pitch and catch baseball. His house still looks the same and the little car port where we keep the catchers MIT and glove is still there just as it was. He got a Sears and Roebuck marching drum one Christmas about 1962 and I in turn got one as soon as I could. He taught me the drum marches he had worked out and then we proceeded to march around Hunterdale playing them. The neighbors were not very fond of that. In 1965 I moved to Norfolk and Barry got a set of drums. In 1969 I got a set of drums and learned to play. I was eventually drafted and arrived in Vietnam on Sept 16, 1971. When I returned home 11 months later my dad told me Barry had been killed. It hit me hard. I could not believe it happened. I didn't know he was there and he didn't now I was there. Fate takes many twist and turns. I think of him often and have such fond memories of our childhood. RIP: Rabbit.

DEAR SERGEANT BARRINGTON,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS A HUEY - UH-1 HELICOPTER REPAIRER. WATCH OVER THE U.S.A., IT STILL NEEDS YOUR COURAGE. ADVENT IS HERE, AND CHRISTMAS IS APPROACHING. WE ARE THANKFUL FOR YOU. THE NEW YEAR IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER, WHICH MAKES IT FAR TOO LONG FOR YOU TO HAVE BEEN GONE. GOD BLESS YOU. MAY THE SAINTS AND ANGELS BE AT YOUR SIDE. REST IN PEACE.

after all these years he is still in my mind. the man gave my sister so much in so little time. i was only 17 when he would come to see my sister soon to be his wife, and throw me the keys to his yellow mustang. i am now 61 and he's still always here