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All Gave Some - Some Gave All
In Time
by Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970 Dak To, Vietnam
Michael O'Donnell, from Springfield, Illinois, was a helicopter pilot assigned to the 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, based at Dak To and Pleiku, RVN.
 
On March 24, 1970, while attempting to rescue eight soldiers, O'Donnell's helicopter was shot down. He and three crew members were declared missing in action. In 1977, he was promoted posthumously to major. A year later, he was officially declared killed in action. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. 
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 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.