To those called to fight
In Vietnam, "There were no good
Wars, only good men!"
[Rich Note: A Memorial Day Tribute to Technical Sgt. Clyde B. Alloway, a long-ago friend, fellow aircrew member and comrade in arms, who didn't make it back from Vietnam:
After 46 years, my general recollection of Vietnam is 3 months of "learning the job," 6 months of "cowboys and indians," and 3 months of a “guy could get killed doing this." What I do remember quite vividly, however, is the night of June 6th, 1970, the night we lost TSgt Clyde B. Alloway during an AC-119K Gunship emergency bailout, after takeoff from DaNang Air Base.
The following poem was written as a tribute to Clyde in 1982 for a 4th of July POW/MIA speech [which can pretty much be summed up: "There are no good wars, only good men!" (a line mentioned during the talk a reporter asked to use)] I was honored make:
To One Left Behind
To one left behind,
Who lives on in my mind;
To one I left there,
Beyond worry and care;
Who lives on in my heart,
And from whom I can’t part.
Though not with me here,
He has nothing to fear,
His duty is done,
And mine only begun;
For though gone from my sight,
I’ll still carry his light;
Nor forget what he’s done,
As a true, faithful son.
1982 Rich Hay
Have to admit feeling a lot like the aged Private Ryan did at the end of "Saving Private Ryan," with regard to the 45 plus years of life I have been blessed to live since that “long ago night when our plane and crew went down and one of us didn’t make it home."]
http://www.virtualwall.org/da/AllowayCD01a.htm
http://rfhay333.blogspot.com/?m=1
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