40 years ago my finger pulled the trigger in anger for the last time, and, scurrying through three wars came more or less unscathed at the other end of that tunnel.
I will repost this one on the 50th anniversary, if I am still alive, if not, some Iraq Veteran should add a few lines to this remembrance.

"Walther" says to everyone and
"that" Marines Special Forces,
but not less, to the Veterans
scattered by the wind
after the battle's end,
I wish you hear a word or two
on this oncoming Memorial Day...

all of you served with courage,
and behind, you didn't leave
no one on the battle field,
I will remember all of you
as I remember all of them,
those that didn't came back
from the senseless mayhem,
in Okinawa beach in '44,
at Korea's Inchon's hell
or dying back enemy lines
holding all the dominoes up
so Vietnam didn't fell,

some of you will remember
their code names very well,
Kenny, Roscoe and Mister Lee,
Sereno, Bom-Bom and myself,
we were the ones that crossed
the rivers where all the demons
went to take a bath and never left,
the ones roaming in the swamps,
dirty green, with the jungle melt,
we were called the tunnel-rats,
the ones coming with the Reaper,
by Vietcong's frightened men.

Almost forty years in Memorial Day
for some of us of that final battle,
and like General Patton I wish to say:
"Soldiers never die,
they fade away."

SEMPER FI