If you are able
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the place they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not of have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with thier 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
-Michael O' Donnell, from Springfield, Illinois, was a helicopter pilot assigned to the 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, based at Dak To and Pleiku, On 24 March 1970, attemping to rescue eight soldiers, his chopper was shot down. He and three crew members were declared missing in action. In 1977, he was promoted to major. A year later, he was officially declared killed in action. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguised Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart.
