VVA 272

Legends and Heroes

In the dark, murky stench of a jungle

devoid, battered, crazed, and forlorn;

a generation of legends and heroes

were in the midst there about to be born.

Brave men who would soon join time-honored ranks

of Chesty Puller and John Basilone;

of Mackie and Butler and Davis, and Smith,

and ʽChosin Fewʼ who withstood in the cold

They covered their brothers at Hill 55,

at Duc Pho, Khe Sanh, and Qui Nhon;

 crossed highway 19 and the City of Hue,  

fought at Chu Lai, Camp Muir, and Camp Love.

Nine pages of names represent those who fell

12000 miles from the comforts of home;

Supreme Commandant placed them on orders,

to report at Heavenʼs gate as his own.

Among others I've been blessed and so privileged

to meet and to talk with just when;

I prepared for the return of my 1/7 son,

with a ʽwelcome homeʼ not then offered to them.

Their names are too many to mention,

yet their presence is vivid to me;

the legends and heroes like Ron I call friend,

the great men of One Seven Marines.

© 2008 Reba Webster Hollingsworth