THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. We should be forever thankful for the sacrifices of you and so many others to ensure the freedoms we so often take for granted.

Dear SSgt Benjamin Yard, Thank you for your service with the 82nd Artillery. The 52nd anniversary of the start of your tour is soon. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Lent has begun. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance, and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Thank you Staff Sergeant Benjamin Edwin Yard, Jr. for volunteering to serve in our country's armed forces during dangerous times, in a far and dangerous place.
He served as a Field Artilleryman and was assigned to B BTRY, 3RD BN, 82ND ARTILLERY, 196TH INFANTRY BDE.
See http://www.virtualwall.org/dy/YardBE01a.htm

SSGT Benjamin E. Yard Jr. served with B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Artillery, 196th Infantry Brigade. On January 16, 1972, he died in Quang Nam Province, RVN. The cause of death was determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org]

He loved us so.
Every day, in a hundred ways, he told us so.
In honesty, in affection, he told us so.
He loved us so.
Every day, in a hundred ways, he showed us so.
With loyalty and bravery, he showed us so.
He was our defender, and he kept us free!
He took an oath to guard us, and fought for liberty!
He loved him so, and we should know.
For we loved him so.
Sergeant Yard, you were the very essence of DUTY!...HONOR!...and COUNTRY! You had been there and done that in Vietnam! You were one brave man who did brave deeds for our America! You had fought for the right without question or pause! Your name and fame are the BIRTHRIGHT of EVERY American citizen! In your youth and strength...your love and loyalty...you had given all that mortality can give to defend liberty everywhere! Your home town named Freedom is very proud of you! You had sacrificed your life so that freedom and justice may live! You had lived up to the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land!...an ideal SO NOBLE that it arouses in all of us a sense of pride, and yet, of humility! I strongly and honestly believe that Avonmore's own Jill Corey, whom I admire so greatly and so immensely as one of my three top favorite songbirds of all time, the other two being Walton-on-Thames's own Julie Andrews, England's musical queen, and London's own Dusty Springfield, another thrush from England, would be very proud of your service to America and the sacrifices you made to keep us and our country free! Well done, Sergeant! Be thou at peace. ARMY STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!