I Tried to Visit the Wall

Stephen Ray (Weasel) Armstrong , TSgt USAF Ret.
37th SPSq 1969/1970

I tried to visit The Wall today, to search for something left behind.
The innocence of this one young man, God help me find some peace of mind!
I’ve tried before to walk this path, where names are etched in stone,
But the path I walked when I was young, took all my strength away.

Memories still invade my nights, horrors cause such dread and fright.
I shed a tear and shake it off, praying I won’t crash tonight!
Can they see it in my eyes, stains from tears again last night?
My wife and child will never know the pain that I hold deep inside.

It’s almost like I never left the place that brings me all this pain,
When lying quietly in my bed with thoughts exploding in my brain.
A war I volunteered to fight should have stopped so long ago,
But still I wrestle in the night, thoughts lay in wait and plague me so.

Thirty years and they still come, things I wish I had not seen.
I turned twenty-one in Viet Nam, and to the bunkers I still flee!
Pictures that compare to hell, I pray our son’s will never know.
I hope that mine will never feel, these battles that disturb me so.

Monsoon rains cannot compare, to tears that we have shed,
I see your face in every crowd, I know that you were there.
I tried to visit the wall today, but could not find the strength to go,
We were together just last night, still doing battle with our foe!

These former things will pass away, no sorrow, death or tears to fall,
I stop and pause then realize that life is short and death takes all.
I’ll walk with these men once again, when death to me does call,
And God will lead us by His hand, and walk with us, beside The Wall!