CPL Donald Ray Webb

Corporal Donald Webb, October 9, 1948 - October 12, 1968, had turned 20 years old just three days before he died in Pleiku, Vietnam. He was serving with the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment/HHT as a heavy vehicle driver. Donald Webb was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star during his three tours in Vietnam.

I'm sure there is a lot that can be said of his service. He obviously served with honor, showing much selflessness and dedication to duty. But that isn't what I want to emphasize here today.

Some have questioned why I post the Daily Wall everyday. "Its just a list of names", "its repetitive", have been a couple of comments. Well, here is why I post this "list of names". It is not just a list of names, each name on that wall is a person. A person who gave his life in service of our country. Each person on that wall is a son to grieving parents. Lots of them were brothers to siblings that never got to experience the joys of a lifelong friend that is always there. Quite a few of the men on that wall were fathers. Fathers to children whose lives were forever changed by their loss. Some of those children never knew their fathers, some never even met them. Some had them taken from them when they needed them most. All were left with a hole in their heart. Many of these men were husbands. The wives they left behind, like all of the other family, only in a very different way, were left alone. Alone to wonder what life could have been like. Alone to raise the children that they shared. Alone to figure out just exactly how to go on living without that one person in their life they gave themselves to, forever.

When we come to understand the human aspect of the costs of war, we can only then understand, what the cost really is.

Donald Ray Webb, we honor your service today, but we remember you for who you were...