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| a
tribute to
my husband by Kathryn L. McNeal |
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July 2000 |
It was unbearably hot July 8th, the last day The Traveling Wall would be in McPherson, Kansas. We went. I didn't push Dave to go. We both saw the article in the paper and I never mentioned it again. It had been his decision all along. Over the past several weeks I began to notice the change in him. The restlessness, the haunting look into nothingness. The need to remember, to feel, but scared to let it out.
They say that healing begins at The Wall, but I don't think it ever ends.
58,209 casualties.
No, that's' not right. There are more... many more.
Everyone who served over there is a casualty of that war.
For Dave, 31 years
later, he is remembering that he, too is a casualty of Viet Nam.
I felt compelled to share in his remembering and to somehow embrace all
those feelings in order to help him through those invisible wounds every
veteran bears.
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Sgt. Charles D. McNeal USMC 1966-1970 |
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| Marine
Corps Recruit Depot
Parris Island South Carolina 1966 Platoon 3042
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An Hoa
Maui Peak
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S/Sgt. Tuan and Dave |
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Cu and Dave |
Cu Kit Carson Scout |
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Village people VietNam |
"Wolfman" Holtz |
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Orphan |
Medical Team with German nurses |
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