Ron Titus, formerly an engineer with the 175th Engineer Company, 196th Infantry Brigade sends me interesting links to articles from time to time. This one was a pip. By the way, the 175th built dog kennels for the 48th at TayNinh in 1967 and again at LZ Baldy in 1969. The photos of the dog kennels under construction at TayNinh, were submitted by Ron.

Recently Ron sent a link to a poem written and read by Michael Ryerson. Mike served in the Marine Corps from 1965 to 1969, arriving in South Vietnam in February of '66 and finally rotating home in March of '68 (25 months, four days and approximately 40 minutes, near as he can figure). He was a forward observer with 5th, 4th and 9th Marines until wounded (twice in the same day!) in May of '67, after which became an operations chief with 9th Marines Regimental Fire Support Coordination Center (FSCC) and finally the S-3 operations chief with Fox Battery, 2nd Battalion, 12th Marines.

To quote Mike, "My work tends to be rather profane; probably not a good mix for general audiences."

To listen to the recording click the link below the photo (photographer unknown).

To read the poem, here is a link to a PDF file:

http://www.vhpa.org/stories/doorway.pdf

Plain and simple, words do not describe Mike’s reading. It begins with an introduction as to why and how he came to write it.  Simply put, Mike nailed it. He nailed it good