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
KIA 24 March 1970
Dak To, Vietnam