I Have Never Forgotten
Posted To His site on the Wall, Washington DC
Sgt. Cochran's Wall Website can be located at:
Hello:
My name is Gary Snay and I served with Sgt. Cochran in Viet Nam. I was in Delta Company with him. I knew Ed quite well. We ate meals together often. I remember to this day his smiling face and that big Manchu mustache he sported with great pride. His eyes flashed brightly with every word he spoke.
I was one of the guys that went in late at night searching for his body. I helped carry my friend from the battlefield in a plastic poncho. I will never forget the great sadness experienced by all when we found Sgt. Cochran and his radio man in the dark of night.
He died in a bombed out section of Saigon. As we searched our way through the bombed out streets, still smoldering from the fires, I saw the glow of
The North Vietnamese waved their cigarettes in the dark creating small streaks of red glowing light. It was pitch dark and one could see the signal clearly.
The North Vietnamese were telling us to pass on. They didn't want to fight anymore. They knew we were retrieving our dead and they let us pass in peace.
I have never forgotten Sgt. Cochran. It seems not a day has gone by when I haven't thought of him. I have told my son about Sgt. Cochran and have mentioned him many times in conversations with friends, family and strangers alike. Abraham Lincoln said it best when he wrote the mother of fallen soldiers during the Civil War. I have found not even his words can express the feelings you must have, even now.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln
Regards,
Gary Snay
3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 9th U.S. Infantry, 25th Infantry Division (Manchu)
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