Dogtags and Body Bags, Tribute to Barry Alexander

Sept 28, 1970 -one day short of an exact year [1] Posted: Nov 19, 2015 10:07 PM   from your brother's sacrifice was when one of his fellow pilots put his life and the lives of his crew in harms way to pluck me from the side of a mountain on the darkest of nights - not a star in the sky. If not for such bravery I, and many like me, would not be here today. The Wall in DC would have many more names if not for your brother and others like him who came to the rescue of so many. I truly feel for your loss.   I know you understand the value of the job your brother was [1] Posted: Nov 19, 2015 9:41 PM

doing but I hope you know how the grunts on the ground appreciated what he was doing. Your brother was doing the job of an absolute angel to the grunts who were facing the enemy. You cannot put into words how much of a hero your brother was. God rest his soul, man.

I just watched the youtube video [1] Posted: Nov 19, 2015 10:40 PM

and the screen got blurry or maybe it was my eyes. What a beautiful tribute to a man who was more of a man than so many others who ran or found a way to protect themselves. Your brother flew that chopper into the danger to pull out the grunts who were in the teeth of danger. Orwell said, "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night because there are rough men who stand ready to do violence on their behalf". Your brother was one of those men. God rest his soul.

very grateful! I was so angry at his death that I said Posted: Nov 19, 2015 11:39 PM

that I wanted to "desert" but I did go back and finish my time and was offered a Commendation Medal, but BARRY was THE MAN! I still have some survivors guilt combined with grief, however volunteering at the VA really helps me - think about getting some more stories out like that - one is a 94 yr, old WW 11 vet who was in Phillipines when they were run out, went on an helped liberate New Guinea and then back with MaCarthur to help liberate the Phillipines - some amazing stories and the other is about a 89 yr.old vet who was a combat medic in Okinawa the same time my Dad was there. They really enjoy telling me the stories, and I enjoy listening. I got a lot out of DRod's book RISE and took some vets to meet him the Medal Of Honor bowl here in Charleston. A great book about VIETNAM is ANGELS IN VIETNAM by John Wesley Fisher - he got ptsd bad and I could not put the book down! Semper Fi FORMER Marine and I know Marines are always Marine! THANK YOU! It does me good to just chat with you here man [1] Posted: Nov 19, 2015 11:45 PM     Reply Read "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge and "Fields of Fire" by James Webb. The type of books you cannot scrape out of your mind after reading them because they are so brutally honest about combat that they are uncomfortable for people to read that do not want truth. You served man...you served, period. You were part of the solution and not part of the problem in this nation where so many only serve themselves.