PFC Burd arrived in country just a short time before the August 23, 1968 battle at the Cam Le bridge and was assigned to the 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon. His squad had been cut off and surrounded in the middle of the rice paddies south of the bridge doing the 8 1/2 hour battle. They managed to escape the much larger VC/NVA force (estimated at battalion-plus size), bring their dead and wounded out with them. PFC Burd was medievaced to the hospital, returning about a month later. On December 23, 1968, PFC Burd was killed while on duty at Da Nang Air Base Gate #12. He will always be missed but never forgotten - he was always doing something funny and kept us guys laughing in a time when we needed it most. Honor, Gallantry Pride, Heroism Forever Young, But never Forgotten For He Ain't Heavy, cause He's my Brother. He was not alone, for we were with him, to the end. I Call My Brothers' Names Where are you my brothers? For I have looked, far and near, I call my brothers' names, But no voices return to me. I remember my brothers, Oh, in our days of youth, Those I ask, no not the place, of my brothers, I shout my brothers' names from the mountain top, but not even the wind will carry my brothers' name, I shout my brothers' names in the Valleys, And the echos flee at the sounds of my brothers' names, For the people tell me, they know not my brothers' names, They tell me, my brothers' names never were. I see the shame within their eyes, But I know the eyes, Are the mirror, to their souls. I feel I no longer belong in this world, But a voice comes, and I am led to a place of peace, And I am standing before that granite wall, And my brothers are here, So many names, And for a second my fragile and broken mind remembers, Oh yes that place, that Vietnam, my brothers' names, are upon this wall, And like everything else, they answer me not, As I walk away, my mind clouds over again, And I cannot find my brothers' names, Do you know why my brothers answer me not? Written by: John Thomas Sr. Vietnam vet USMC Delta 1st MP BN Please visit our Delta Company, 1st MP BN web site and read "The Battle" to learn more.

 

A memorial from a friend and fellow Delta Company Marine, John W. Thomas Sr. 3321 Liberty Heights Ave, #304, Baltimore, Md 21215 jtinc1@yahoo.com  5 Nov 2001

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