REMEMBRANCE by Maj Michel O'Donnell

I found this and felt the spirit of Michale's poem.

Major O'Donnell was listed as MIA while piloting a helicopter on a mission in Cambodia on 24 March 1970. His remains were recovered and interned at Arlington National Cemetery on 16 August 2001.

A gentle hero who gave his life for an undeserving country.

Remembrance

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 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

170TH AVN CO, 52ND AVN BN, 17TH AVN GRP, 1 AVN BDE

US Army

13 August 1945 - 24 March 1970

Springfield, IL

Panel 12W Line 040

Lest We Forget...

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