On the front page of the Reporter-Herald	~ Some Gave All ~ November 11, 2004 On this Veterans Day… A sculpture was dedicated in Dwayne Webster Veterans Park to honor those from Loveland who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our country. The inscription on the sculpture is from a poem by Major Michael D. O’Donnell, written 1 Jan 1970, in Dak To Vietnam, shortly before he was killed in action.
	If you are able, save for them a place inside of you… and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go…. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always… Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own… And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind… by Major Michael Davis O’Donnell
Major Michael Davis O’Donnell, from Springfield, Illinois, was a helicopter pilot assigned to the 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, based at Dak To and Pleiku. On 24 March 1970, while attempting to rescue eight soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces, his chopper was shot down. Although crew in other choppers reported that his craft had been engulfed in a ball of fire that no one could have survived, he and three crewmembers were declared Missing In Action, perhaps in part because his chopper was downed in Laos. In 1977, he was promoted to major. A year later, he was officially declared Killed In Action. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. According to VirtualWall.org, the remains of the Americans lost in this crash were repatriated on 12 Apr 1995 and positively identified on 20 Jun 2001.
Click Here to view pictures from the parade and Dedication Ceremony