"Save them a place" Maj. Michale Davis O'Donnell: for the Monkeyman.

If you are able,


save them a place


inside of you


and save one backward glance


when you are leaving





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 David O'Donnell


Written 1 January 1970


MIA 24 March 1970


Dak To, Vietnam


Semper Fi, from Doc "J"

thank you for posting it. We'll miss Monkeyman.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

"The Ode," recited at Remembrance Day services, British Commenwealth.


Staaaaaannnd...TO.

We've been fortunate to have had the time we did with the DUers who are now gone. Monkeyman was a very generous soul. So were Kephra, Andy and Nostamj. I still have a bumper sticker I bought from Nostamj on my car. It says: Support Bush? Enlist now! In small print below that it says: Our troops in Iraq are dying for your help. It's getting old and faded but I just can't bring myself to take it off.

I know it sounds really cliche', I don't care: These wonderful people may be gone but they are not forgotten!

:cry: :patriot:

Julie

They didn't outlive the Pig Bush Administration.

We Shall remember.

THAT is a Memory to be Hoarded.

AT THE RIVER-CROSSING by Harry ("Breaker") Morant

Oh! the quiet river-crossing
Where we twain were wont to ride,
Where the wanton winds were to sing
Willow branches o'er the tide.


There the golden noon would find us
Dallying through the summer day,
All the waery world behind us -
All it's tumult far away.


Oh! thoe rides across the crossing
Where the shallow stream runs wide,
When the sunset's beams were glossing
Strips of sand on either side.


We would cross the sparkling river
On the brown horse and the bay;
Watch the willows sway and shiver
And their trembling shadows play.


When the opal tints waxed duller
And a gray crept o'er the skies
Yet there stayed the blue sky's color
In your dreamy dark-blue eyes.


How the sun-god's bright caresses,
When we rode at sunet there,
Plaited among your braided tresses,
Gleaming on your silky hair.


When the last sunlight's glory
Faded off the sandy bars,
There we learnt the old, old story,
Riding homeward 'neat the stars.


'Tis a memory to be hoarded -
Oh, the follish tale and fond!
Till another stream be forded -
And we reach the Great Beyond.