Donald John Porter

The database page for Donald John Porter

26 Oct 2005 Donnie . . . You were always my role model. I remember you still and keep you in my prayers. You were a better man than I and a true hero. George. 21 Mar 2006 Nones of March I didn’t come to visit you this year, though I have been faithful since the spring that I first learned. No longer flesh you have become deep letters etched on polished stone as dark as old blood, as cold as our Chicago in January. This stone and late winter have become our meeting place, not the boisterous, boundlessness, placelessness of our sunlit youth. No more lazy afternoons and celebratory evenings. Now we meet early, before the dawn, the way that soldiers do, cupping their cigarettes against the waiting eyes, before the day fills with all that fills the days. Before birds begin their morning song, while frost still glistens, I walk the ramp slowly until I find your name among the others. Softly I press bare fingers into those diamond hard letters, hoping my touch will resurrect your easy laughter; knowing that it won’t no matter how gentle. Though I cannot hear your voice I mark your presence as sun rises, or rain falls, or wind blows off the river. I tell you of the year just past, knowing that somehow you hear me. ‘Happy birthday’ I say to the stone, and whisper of the phase of life on which you and I are separately embarked. But this year there are new obligations. Instead mysterious granite, I will meet you on a Midwest hillside, just as early, just as convinced that, even without a memorial, you will be there in the mist. Me on my way to work, you held fast in what lies beyond, me waiting to hear again your voice. You speaking without using words. From a friend, George Raach raach_george@bah.com

A Note from The Virtual Wall On 02 June 1969 a walk in the sun for men from the 1st Bn, 8th Cavalry, turned into a bitter fight which came to be known as the Battle of Banana Island. A description of the fight from someone who was there is on the memorial for Corporal Mark Dreier. The eight men who died on Banana Island were A Company, 1st Bn, 8th Cavalry: SSG Lyman C. Bach, Medford, WI SGT Ray L. Ulrich, Milton, PA CPL Mark S. Dreier, Postville, IA SP4 Wilbur A. Smith, Bomont, WV CPL Preston Taylor, Sumter, SC (Medic, HHC w/ Alpha 1/8) OH-6A 67-16600 aircrew, C Troop, 1st Sqdn, 9th Cavalry: 1LT Donald J. Porter, Naperville, IL SGT Paul F. Weber, Lemon Grove, CA PFC Warren F. Brown, Ama, LA

The point-of-contact for this memorial is a friend, George T. Raach raach_george@bah.com 26 Oct 2005

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With all respect
Jim Schueckler, former CW2, US Army
Ken Davis, Commander, United States Navy (Ret)
Last updated 03/24/2006