One Day In 'nam Poem by Rich Reitz

A good friend died
On a helicopter ride.
Flight testing his bird,
Or so I have heard.
The engine wheezed
And then it seized.
He tried to auto-rotate,
But the end wasn't great.
Thought it wasn't overloaded,
His Loach crashed and exploded.
He escaped, but returned
For his crewman, horribly burned.
Leroy pulled him away
But he died the same day.
His skin all melted and bloody and rent;
Leroy was burned over eighty per cent.
Doctors tried to save him in every way,
But our hero, Leroy, passed on the next day.
His name's now engraved on the Vietnam Wall
And he should be an example for all.
For whatever you do in life, in the end
The greatest love is to die for a friend.