THE WALL OF FACES

Alan is buried at Scandinavian Cemetery in Rockford, IL. BSM/OLC PH

Thanks for great memories and for your service to our country. I am proud to have known you.

We are thinking of you as we plan our 40th class reunion from Conant High School and we miss you and the smile you always had for everyone and never an unkind word. Tomorrow is the anniversary of your death and most of the world will go about their business, but we, your friends from Conant will think of you and wish you were here. And we'll be thinking of you in August when we gather to celebrate our 40th class reunion - the first graduating class of Conant of which you will always be a part. If you have a chance, drop in - there will always be a place for you. Be seeing you Al.

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

Al and I went to the same high school "Conant" in Hoffman Estates, Il. We didn't hang around the same crowd. Rams was a "rah rah", athlete. He was on the basketball team and pretty good player. I was a "greaser", a tuff guy. We got drafted the same day and spent Basic and AIT together in Ft Puke Louisanna. The Army bunks you alphabetically, a.b.c..etc. I was "p", and since there were no people with their last name starting with a "Q" Ramsey was next. So for basic and AIT "Rams" and I were bunk partners. He was on the top bunk and I was on the bottom bunk. We got to be real close and good friends. Man who could believe a "rah rah and a greaser" the best of friends. We went on pass together in "Leesville", and other Louisianna towns like Baton Rouge and got stinkin drunk with two other guys who we knew from the next town over from Hoffman Estates, a town called Palatine, Il., Marty Anderson and Art Pierce. We looked for women but who would touch us skinheads, so we never found any. We got drunker and played poker and talked alot. Unfortunately, we got seperated after AIT. Rams went to Nam and I went to Ft. Benning NCO school. I was into my first month of NCO school and I had just sent Rams a letter. It came back "deceased". I cried and don't remember if I called Rams mother but I think I thought about it. I don't know. Whatever happened I don't know. I was real upset. It was the weekend and I was scheduled for guard duty. There was no way I was doin guard duty. I went AWOL and got stinkin drunk with the two other guys from Palatine, Il. It took a while to get over Rams loss and I'll never forget him. He was a real friend and we shared alot. "Rams I miss you"