Musings of a South Texas Gypsy: The Wall - It is said a man is not dead until he is forgotten

It's been eleven years since "The Wall" was written and still I can't help, but be moved each time I read it. Periodically I go to the virtual wall to see if there's a new posting for the two young men below. Learning from each who they were.

Stanley (KIA) was brought home to West Texas; Corky (MIA) remains in Laos. Where ever their final resting place each remain in the lives of those that knew them, loved them, and respected them. Recently I found a friend of Stanley's website where he says in 2007 that still after 42 years he mourns this young mans death and went to find his grave, he says "Marines fight for their country but first and foremost, their fellow Marines".

Stanley attended Texas Tech University before joining the Marine Corp. After arriving in Vietnam he wrote back to his friends and said if he could keep the atrocity of war on foreign shores he would do what he could to protect his homeland.

At the time "The Wall" was written for Stanley's youngest brother Mike a Vietnam vet himself, he was in the final stages of his own health battle. Mike couldn't speak of his war experiences until just a few years before his death at the age of 50. Finally, maybe he had resolved that it was okay to be home to have survived. The haunting memories though were never resolved.

Raymond Stanley Joy
Corporal
1ST FORCE RECON CO,
HQ BN, 3RD MARDIV
United States Marine Corps
19 October 1942 - 16 December 1965
Abernathy, Texas
Panel 04E Line 018

The Wall

Tonight I visited "The Wall" yet never moved so before.
I wept and touched the traveling wall,
many years ago along Corpus Christi's shore.

But, tonight I visited "The Wall" with Corky - Irby Dyer III and
Raymond Stanley Joy Jr. never knowing these men until now,
my brother-in-law Mike, knew them well.

Cousin and brother each so young, at 23 lost a year apart.
As Christmas was about to make a peek,
their families back home never again to hear them speak.

Thank God "The Wall" will carry them on!
Twenty-four years later, Austin, a nephew arrives.
With Stanley's smile and same blue eyes.

What will we teach him? Will he have a clue?
Disturbing words we hear in disgust, "What were we doing there?"
I think to myself, "Ask those who went
thinking not of themselves, but of us."

So, young and full of life yet, gave it all,
so we could carry on, in spite.
God bless those young men and women
Who loved us so, now cradled forever in God's loving fold.

for Mike 2/1999