Memorial Day Reflections

[82Rigger]

Alone and far removed from earthly care
The noble ruins of men lie buried here.
You were strong men, good men Endowed with youth and much the will to live
I hear no protest from the mute lips of the dead.
They rest; there is no more to give.
So long, my comrades,
Sleep ye where you fell upon the field.
But tread softly please
March o?er my heart with ease
March on and on,
But to God alone we kneel.

- Audie Murphy

***

?Tell them of us? and say,
For their tomorrow,
We gave our today."

- The Kohima Epitaph

***


"War drew us from our homeland in the sunlit springtime of our youth.
Those who did not come back alive remain
in perpetual springtime -- forever young --
And a part of them is with us always."

- Author Unknown

***

When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

- William Shakespeare

***


?If I should die, think only this of me?
There is some corner in a foreign field
That is forever America"

- Robert Brooke

***

If you are able,
save 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 war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

- Major Michael Davis O'Donnell

***


"Look deeply into my black granite face and see yourself in the reflection - your face, super-imposed on names. Never forget the names... the names... the names... for they hold the answer."

- Terrence O'Donnell, Esq. (USAF) Vietnam 1969-1970


Steve / 82Rigger