Click below to listen to “The Sounds of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel
By Mike Cornell
High above the rockets glare
The shells do burst their pretty glow
With their sounds my soul is bare
From their beauty their memories grow
With whistles and cracks the shells did fall
All alone, upon the ground
No where to go, no one to call
All alone, upon the ground
All alone, no place to go
Not a soul to share my space
Upon the ground and laying low
In my arms I buried my face
Without relent, they continued to fall
One after another they shook the ground
No where to go, no one to call
With every one came the sound
Whistles and whines, that pierced the ears
A foreboding sign of other rounds
A time to wonder, a time to fear
And with it came the other sounds
Into the night sky the rockets do glow
To all the world, it is a show
In my mind I will always know
All alone, no where to go
Mike Cornell was my Crew Chief on several Medivac flights our of Dong Ha Mag 16 Forward. Mike literally lived in his chopper and flew more hot missions than most in HMM 361. I feel fortunate that he can write what you see posted. Mike and John Noble will be mentioned more later .Just to mention as corpsman we never wrote crew members up for medals but Bill Yancey HM2 and I did when they all came back from Dong HA after September 3rd 1967.