GERALD L AADLAND
GERALD L AADLAND
63W/14
REMEMBRANCES
We Remember
Remembering you today . . .
I as a humble American Girl want you to know that you are a blessing to a countless number of people past, present, and future. And through your selfless service and courageous deeds your efforts have and will have an influence on many generations. And with all the good you did and the ultimate sacrifice you paid you truly are OUR HERO and we thank God that you lived.
In your honor I leave this poem for you.
FREEDOM
by Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC
It is the soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us the freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us Freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us the Freedom to demonstrate
It is the soldier, who serves beneath the Flag,
Who salutes the Flag,
Whose coffin is draped by the Flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the Flag,
It is the soldier, not the politician,
Who has given his blood, his body, his life,
Who has given us these FREEDOMS!
REST IN PEACE. YOU ARE A HERO!
SHARON (FALK) MEADOWS
Never Forgotten
"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 heros 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 heros 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