THE WALL OF FACES

2nd LIEUTENANT

RICHARD J SEIBERT


who served with

DELTA COMPANY

3rd BATTALION

21st INFANTRY REGIMENT

196th INFANTRY BRIGADE


" AHEAD OF THE REST "


was a posthumous recipient of the


DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS

PURPLE HEART

NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL

VIETNAM SERVICE MEDAL

REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM CAMPAIGN SERVICE MEDAL


and was entitled to wear the


COMBAT INFANTRYMAN BADGE





YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

NOR SHALL YOU EVER BE





20 JULY 1999

Dick made me a part of his family and his dreams.
We were in different units in Nam but at roughly the same time. Tet '68.
This poem is dedicated to the love he and Terry Cunningham shared.
She is the only woman he asked to marry him and would have when he got back, but for fate....

The Purple Heart

By Jerry Plunkett 27 March 2002 ([email protected])

Death had Her hand upon his shoulder.
His smiles felt Her still presence.
She would be patient.
Your kiss blessed his lips as he slipped into Her world.

The aroma of equine sweat rose on leather.
The good earth absorbing life's heavy, trodding gait.
The smell of untended grass;
Animal musk and muddy clay;
These things would have been your coupling bed.

He brought the heat of a summer's day.
You brought the warm pure smells of home.
A family bounded in sunshine.
Together pouring golden through life.

Your hair flew like soft wings above the animal's powerful back.
His eyes fell on you from his mount in hot enveloping swirls.
The tempest about you both served as background harmony.
A rhythm focused in time.

The universe's corners fill your mind.
He brought the will to focus that flow.
Together you have forged an unbroken chain.
It trails into the eons of time.

He still stands firmly rooted in the land.
He holds a tether of pearls fastened around your heart
by a purple glow.
The selfless glow of a true heart.

But your fear of that other Woman caused you to flee.
A promise you couldn't have understood.
Fear galloped under you;
His nostrils and eyes wide;
Neck stretched taut distancing the head from Her.

The purple tie is buried in your heart, my love.
Fear dug its grave.
And horror was fear's name.
The horrible kiss of my corpse.

My hands still cling to the pearly thread.
It spans the distance from timelessness to time.
I offered a partnership in life.
A oneness with you inseparable by death.

But you saw another Woman come between us.
One destined to win my heart for eternity.
I wanted never to feel death's sting.
My future secured in your heart and through your womb.

The living must prevail.
But in which reality?
Things stay buried in the ground.
Not so in the heart.

Many pregnant sunrises have passed.
Death was my bride in the Far East.
But I have divorced Her.
The estuary between life and death is carrying me to you.

The Sea of Death is an ocean of Life's dreams.
A fragile sliver of pearl glowed from Death's sea.
A discarded gem to be valued as the treasure it had always been.
It speaks of the enduring depth of my promise to you.

We can soil ourselves in all eyes save God's.
The promise and unsoiled truth of my love washes over you.
Your heart longs to extend its hand to mine.
A renewal of vows our hearts made long ago.

My purple heart was cast down by time to the bottom of your heart.
It shattered into shards of truth.
The glint of life still beats there.
It is the holiest of marriages.

Not too close, the doors of the past.
Flying open, I still live!
But only just beyond the edges of your heart.
I am no dark angel.
No succubus sent to drink your life away.
My purpose has always been true.

One day I will take your hand at life's threshold.
I said I'd give you time to reply.
I knew I had eternity to finally slow your flight.
To gently turn your eyes to me;
To walk with you into the violet night;
To finally and forever fulfill my promise to you.

Until we meet again,to walk down the snowy streets,to walk in the woods,to sit by the fire together.
To remember every day of my life,all that you mean't,and to never stop loving you.

Dick was the nearest I got to having a brother.We worked together as riders, chased women as rivals, and partied with the best. Dick always went first class and died the same way,splendidly and with honor. His only major fault was bad timimg. It has been 32 years now since you left us, but your faded photo sits proudly on my mantel, alongside those of my wife, children and all my other loved ones. I miss you.

I think of Dick often. He was my first boyfriend when I was just 16 years old. I am so proud of him and love him even now.