Thanks for doing this one, Roger. I always see faces on Memorial Day. Sometimes they are the faces of fella's going on patrol never to return, sometimes they are the faces of friends going off to service never to return; sometimes it is the tortured and hurt look in an old man-warrior's eyes as he and I realize that it was a different place and buddy but the same experience; it is the face of a woman named Nora who was a nurse and who tended a buddy of mine who was dying and in his dying he thought that she was his girl, and so she was, and held him while he died. She cried as if she had lost her own lover and bears the scars in her mind to this very day. I see many faces and hear many sounds on this day. I will take my 7 year old daughter to the local memorial and explain it to her. At around 10:00 p.m. (Eastern US) on Monday evening I will be sitting on a hill in the middle of Yankee Springs State Game Area with a Low D Whistle. After all the flatlanders have gone home without ever having given a thought as to why they had the extra day off, I will begin playing my whistle to those friends, and those faces, and those voices. I will play to my friends the stars, and to Orion the Hunter. And I will remember.....and I will memorialize.......and I will cry. Will you all do the old Mick a favor, please? Will you sing a song of remembrance then, or a tune, or just let the notes flow for my friends, and your friends, and kin? Will you sing for Nora and all her sisters who meant so much to us? Will you remember that the warriors didn't set the policy? Will you remember that Vietnam was not just an exercise in civil disobedience? I would really appreciate it, my very dear friends. It is one of the reasons why I sing.

Thanks and I will be listening for you.

All the best,