Brooks, Roger, PNCS

The Vietnam Memorial was dedicated and opened to the public in November 1982. I did not get to the Wall until January 23, 1992, on my birthday. It was a cold rainy day. A friend of mine said to me before I left to go to DC and the memorial that it was imperative to carry a pad and pencil with me when I went to the wall. He went on to say, ?you should go sit down some where and reflect when you finish your visit to the wall, and make notes of your feelings and anything else that comes to mind.? One does not realize the gravity of this place until you actually walk along that black granite wall and try to take in all of the names that are there. So many names, there are so many many names on that wall. There is a saying in the front of a book entitled "Enemy Country" it goes like this; "The kittens kept asking the cat if he had ever been to the land where the tigers roamed. The cat did not like to say yes or no. "How do you know, then, if there really were tigers in the land? How do you know?" "I know in my own way," the cat replied, "just as you know in your own way. For in our day we all have been there, and still are"".

There are two names on that wall which are special to me, John Louis Anderson (location NE 23E 97), and Donald Hall Parson (location NE 15W 109). John was a high school classmate of mine who was killed 21 July 1967, long before I got to Vietnam. Then there is Donald Hall Parson, Chief Petty Officer, U. S. Navy, he and I were assigned to operation Sea Float in December 1969, and he was killed in action 30 December 1969, while patrolling the canals as a boat captain on a Swift boat. A rocket hit their boat and it exploded in the cockpit. I was on the chopper pad when they brought Chief Parson in, and I helped place his body into a body bag for his last trip home. I have marveled over and over, many, many times, there but by the grace of God go I. I think about this a lot. My name could have been on the wall if I had been the boat captain that day.