1LT DONALD JOHN PORTER 1LT DONALD JOHN PORTER 1LT 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 Conrad Bach, Medford, Wisconsin SGT Ray Leonard Ulrich, Milton, Pennsylvania CPL Mark Steven Dreier, Postville, Iowa SP4 Wilbur Allen Smith, Bomont, West Virginia CPL Preston Taylor, Jr, Sumter, South Carolina (Medic, HHC w/ Alpha 1/8) OH-6A 67-16600 Aircrew, C Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry 1LT Donald John Porter, Naperville, Illinois (Silver Star) SGT Paul Frederick Weber, Lemon Grove, California PFC Warren Fred Brown, Ama, Louisiana

 

The Daily Staff Journal for the 1st Air Cavalry Division, item 29, 2 June 1969, stated: From 1st Brigade; C/1-9 Cav. to G-2; G-3. YT529445 1015 hours. Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) at unknown speed and altitude received small arms fire, took hits, exploded in the air, crashed and burned. A platoon of A Company, 1st Bn 8th Cavalry is in the vicinity of the Aircraft but cannot get to it because of exploding ammunition and fuel. There are no signs of survivers. The aircraft had a 3 man crew. Results are 3 men missing in action. They were reported dead on 6 June, 1969 and the family was notified on the 7th of June. From a public forum website: "The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.' Thucydides 471 B.C. I knew Don only briefly. He was a friend of a friend of mine -- Jim Donovan. Don, Jim Donovan, Jim's brother, Dave Donovan, me, my brother, Pat, and Marv Brummel, all high school friends, went swimming one summer evening at the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, IL. It was probably around 1963 or 1964. That's when we first met Don. I found him to be a very put-together kind of guy, confident, mild, somewhat reserved, bright, composed, nice looking and the kind of guy you respected naturally. I met him once or twice after that, but we attended different high schools. Later we all went our ways. I went to college and finished in 1965 and then headed for law school which I completed in June, 1968. I wasn't aware for some time that Don had been killed one year later, June 2, 1969. I was somewhat shaken that this memorable young man I had met some years earlier had gone on to the Viet Nam War to be one of its casualties. I have thought of him often thru the years and each time I've been to Washington, DC since the Wall was built, I've stopped by to touch Don's name and pay my respects to a fine young American with so much promise unfulfilled. People complain about things such as the high price of gasoline, the fact their expectations aren't being met, or that our government isn't doing enough for them. They have no basis for complaint. Don and his wife and family had something to cry over, to mourn. Material possessions don't register on the Real Scale of Life. Don undoubtedly was concerned about what he would face in Nam. But he followed orders and did as his country bade of him. He met the measure of our greatest men and women and passed the ultimate test. In the end, what he accomplished and others with him is far more important than what I have done in my life or you in yours: he did his duty as it was asked of him by his countrymen and women. His baby daughter was born six days after his death. She never got to know this good man, her own father. " Dan Kuhn, Naperville, IL 04/01/2008 1LT Porter was survived by his wife, Sharon L Porter, and his parents, Mrs and Mr Robert D Porter, all of Naperville, Illinois. He is buried in St Peter & Paul Cemetery, Naperville, Illinois. - - The Virtual Wall, April 27, 2014

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