THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

Every year on this day I think about you and wanting to shake your hand and say Thank you for your service. But for now this will have to do until we meet again and I can do it in person in Heaven. Thank you for the ultimate sacrifice that you gave on behalf of our country. To your beautiful family that you left behind we Thank them because they also paid the ultimate sacrifice for a life without you. God bless you and till we meet again Sir.

Dear Sp4 Mateo Ruelas, Thank you for your service as an Indirect Fire Infantryman with the 1st Cavalry. I researched you on your 72nd birthday, happy birthday. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Halloween is next weekend. Time moves quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Specialist Four Mateo Ruelas was awarded the Silver Star Medal for his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action. He served as an Indirect Fire Infantryman and was assigned to B CO, 2ND BN, 12TH CAVALRY, 1ST CAV DIV.
See https://army.togetherweserved.com/

My daddy tells of his best friend cousin, Mateo Ruelas. The first soldier drafted from his little town. The first to come back in a bag to his Tia and his Abuelita. A few years ago my brother took him to the wall in Washington DC. You are the soldier my daddy talks about. You are the best friend cousin who left your hometown and didn't come back alive, my daddy says. You are the man who looks exactly like my daddy. You are the man who is buried next to my great-grandmother with a little flag by the stone. You are the man my daddy traveled to pay his respect and nearly crumbled doing it. You are the man my daddy loves.