THE WALL OF FACES

Semper Fi, Marine.

Dear LCPL James Kevin O'leary, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for the ultimate sacrifice that you made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. And please know that men and women like you have stepped forward to defend our country yet again, showing the same love for country and their fellow Americans that you did- you would be proud.

With respect, and the best salute that a civilian can muster for you.

Curt Carter

Memorial

I will return there again
There’s an emptiness to fill
That cold black marble trail
The sound it makes so still

Like the church without its dome
Like the chapel without its bell
The quiet like a tomb
Men and tears they fell

I heard them tell its story
But no vision came to mind
Til I saw the shuffle, procession
Aging memory come to find

Little flowers little letters
Little signs of long ago
Little pictures little gestures
Collected pain of our lost soul

I cannot outgrow the Sixties
Can’t leave that time behind
What the world needed now was love
And we were by war defined

Who was he James Kevin?
Who can you be at nineteen years?
Shot and gone to heaven him
Us earth-bound to tears

We hardly knew ye, Johnny
We barely knew you James
We called you Cousin Kevin
You never came again

I want to go back down there
To the hush of that long grave
Beside the black marble trail
That carved our collective soul

~ R. Pacatte, 1997
In memory of James Kevin O’Leary

"An God said who shall we send.I answered I am here,send me."

Isaiah 6:8