Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Pub Talk). This thread is read-only.
So ime not really sure what to say. I just figured we could all take a minute this Memorial Day to remember the fallen. Mainly I wanted to share a song that means a lot to my family.
Trace Adkins’ song “Arlington” always hit home for me. It was released when I served in DC conducting funerals in Arlington National Cemetery. Since I left in 2008 a few friends have been laid to rest there; they will be the first ones I visit when I report back to The Old Guard next year.
Memorial Day should honor those who gave their lives for our nation. A time of enjoyment–cooking out and spending time with family and friends while we can–but also a time of remembrance. The poem at the end of the movie Hamburger Hill is a favorite of mine:
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,
though you may
or may not have always.
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.
Major Michael Davis O’Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
Major O’Donnell was shot down while extracting a Special Forces team only a couple of months after writing the above poem. His crew of four, three Special Forces personnel and five indigenous troops were aboard and all were declared Missing in Action. Their remains were finally repatriated on April 12th, 1995.