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Like so many many others at that time....my high
school years were filled with uncertainites....Those graduating ahead of me at that time entered the service......was given
a rifle and sent over the pond to a world that no one could imagine......To a war that no one supported nor wanted....for
a goverment that knew it was unwinable the way we were fighting it .....some returned home intact....too many did not......some
never did return.......
Our football team was called the "Phantoms" and
in 1967....after playing football together on the same team for four years.....the smallest team in the league.........the
one picked dead last and dubbed....."to small to be of any threat to the Ches-Mont Crown" went undefeated and won the Ches-Mont
Championship.This was no small feat and one that was long overdue......I can't say the war drove us that year.......but..........
The"Phantoms"seniors that year continued
on with the cycle... entered
the service...handed a gun and over the pond we went... all went
for different reasons wheither we beleived in the war or not...alot of good P-ville guys fell in the paddies over there and
that was my motivation.......even the numbers out and oh yes...for God.. Mother and Country.......
This is for all the Timmy's and John's...the Larry's and Bill's...the Earnie's....Paul's...Tom's and
al's.....For the kid next door or the one down the block....the guy you smoked your first cigaretts with.........had your
first beer with........went on double dates together....this is for the motorheads...the nerds...the woodshop guys and metalheads..the
hippy and all those who were different..their voices are now silent and their eyes are closed...Yet we still hear the laughter
...our eyes still see....We're still Together Brother.....Forever....Forget....NEVER
This site is in memory of them
and all like them......who as kids grew up laughing and sharing....hanging out and camping together...had sleep overs......all
night monopoly games.....marbles.....mumbly peg......dodgeball....crafts at the park...king of the hill and mother may I.....1
2 3 redlight.......and a thousand others....
GOD BLESS YOU ALL
I'LL NEVER FORGET MY BROTHERS
If you are able
Save
for 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 taught you
With their dying;
And keep it with your own.
And in time when you decide
And
feel safe to call the war insane,
Take one moment to embrace
Those gentle heroes
you left behind...
Major Michael O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
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