WAR-POW-MIA
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 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.
By----Major Michael O’Donald, Jan 1, 1970, Dak To, Vietnam
Major O’Donald, a helicopter pilot, went MIA on 3/24/1970 during a rescue attempt.
His remains were returned in 1995 and identified in 2001.
From: AllPOWMia.com
A friend, who was O’Donald’s Commanding Officer, pointed me to this Poem after reading my Novel The Last American Hero.
I include the poem in my closing when speaking about my novel, at book signings and appearance.
They first dozen times I could not finish the poem.
If you have lost a family member or friend in a war I’m sure you will understand.
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