THE WALL OF FACES

I am proud to have been your Plt Ldr thru adv Ind tng, Unit tng and our first 3 mo in VN. Of all those I served with, you stand out in my memory. Three times during the 80s, while tdy to the Pentagon, I rented a car and made the drive to Long Island to lay flowers at your white cross. Today I again salute you. God Bless.

On this your angel day I humbly give thanks for your service and sacrifice and with honor I leave you this poem . . .

A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam
And for a brief moment its glory
and beauty belong to our world
But then it flies again
And though we wish it could have stayed...
We feel lucky to have seen it.

~Author Unknown

First met Richie doing laundry detail in Ft. Lewis Washington in 1966.

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 and patriots 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

Richard is buried at Long Island Nat Cem.