In memoriam ...

[Cairycat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Judge

LCpl Darwin L. Judge
Cpl Charles McMahon

Charles McMahon (May 10, 1953 - April 29, 1975) and Darwin Lee Judge (February 16, 1956 - April 29, 1975) were the last two U.S. servicemen killed in the Vietnam War. Both Marines died in a rocket attack on April 29, 1975, while providing security for the Defense Attache Office, at the Tân Sơn Nhứt Airport in Saigon <1>. The American evacuation of Saigon was complete by the next day, April 30, 1975.

Corporal Charles McMahon was from Woburn, Massachusetts. Lance Corporal Darwin Judge was an Eagle Scout and was from Marshalltown, Iowa. Judge was 19 years old at the time of his death.

Both men were members of the Marine Security Guard Battalion at the American Embassy. They were killed in artillery fire from several approaching NVA infantry divisions closing in on Saigon. Their bodies were left behind but were returned to their families the next year for burial. Judge never received the Purple Heart he deserved and was not given Marine burial honors until 25 years later <2>.

I knew him - he was just as wonderful as person as they say. Why, why did someone like that have to die so young?

[Condem]

1. Four score and seven years ago..

...our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who gave their lives so that this nation can live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate- we cannot consecrate- we cannot hallow- this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here, have consecrated, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who have fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- and that govenment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.






In my very humble opinion the most beautiful words ever composed. Thank you, Cairycat, for your post.