​DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
JOHN GERTCH – KIA JULY 1969 AND
CHARLES R. PYLE – KIA MARCH 1968

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one,
Those youthful years are now long gone.
It was the average age of the The Truth
friends I knew.
Too many of them whose lives are through.
I knew each one by their first names.
They came from the city, country, mountains and plains.
We ate together, slept together, laughed and fought together.
And to let the others down was never a thought.
We were young and brave but so very naïve.
So many of our families would soon have to grieve.
We wore the Screaming Eagle and solemnly swore
To uphold its fame for those who wore it before.
That eagle fought in places hard to say,
Hai Lang, Dak To, The A Shua and Hue.
He got wounded, scarred, bruised and battered
But he kicked Charlie’s butt, that’s all that mattered.
Now I’m fifty years old and I see the sad truth.
Our dreams of glory were the end of our youth.

​Dwight D. Lane
E Co.-Recon 1st/501st Infantry
Tiger Force Recon 1st/327th Infantry
Dec. 67 to Dec. 68