A Vietnam Veteran and an Orphan Named Ana

Home Sweet Home – Still Free

Written by Ana O’Brien. Accompanied by Randy Vaillancourt, Midland, Michigan.

Home Sweet Home

These ol’ pine floors slope, seemed to have lost my get up n’ go
I’m well on the downhill-side now n’ going faster
Living on a spit of land, 1920 farmhouse of lathe n’ plaster
Please disregard all those disrepairs outside
For inside still reigns a Lord n’ Master

Every morning I go out n’ raise the stars n’ stripes
Saluting those brave souls who still haunt me at night
Some fifty years ago, we were just mere kids
Fighting on foreign soil, in a hell-war, all for one, together
The battle weary, lucky ones who made it out alive
Would come back stateside, changed forever

Now, that ol’ flag waving out my window, I turn to see
Is there keeping those heroes alive in my memory
Those never-to-be-forgotten soldiers who paid the highest price
Just to keep this spit of land I live on n’ me
Still free,
Still free,
Still free.

Dr. Boyd Cooper, WWII (To be rescheduled)

At age nineteen Jim leaves the sanctity of his little Mormon town and goes to fight in World War II. Jim is made a lead navigator in the army air corps and during his many combat missions over Germany becomes a highly decorated officer. On his return home Jim is lost. He cannot deal with being treated as a hero, for Jim feels responsible for the deaths of his comrades. He suffers from post-traumatic shock syndrome. To escape, he goes into the mountains of northern Idaho in the middle of a snowstorm to find a childhood love. Instead Jim finds himself.

C. Douglas Sterner, Vietnam Combat Engineer

Doug Sterner served 18 months in Vietnam mostly as a combat engineer with the 25th, 1st Cav and 101st Airborne divisions from August 1970 to March 1972. In the latter part of his tour, he served as a writer/photographer for his unit newspapers. Upon his discharge from the Army, Sterner returned to his native Montana before relocating to Colorado.

After learning that Pueblo, where he was then living, boasted four Medal of Honor recipients, he and his wife Pam sought a way to recognize them.For over 20 years, the site has provided a valuable resource and thereby garnered a huge following from the general public, military departments, news and educational organizations. Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC, one of our sponsors, took over the site in mid-2018.In 1998, Doug launched the Home of Heroes website to document the citations and biographies of our Nation’s Medal of Honor recipients. His research led him to expand the site’s mission to include other medal recipients that have been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star and others.

Doug has also published over 10 books which can be found on Amazon.

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All Gave Some. Some Gave All. Always Remember