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From:  Jim Schutzman in denver
Subject: MEMORIAL DAY 2010: Michael Hendrickson, USMC

 IN MEMORIAM:                MICHAEL HENDRICKSON
                   Died 1968, Battle of Khe Sanh, South Viet Nam

                Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; 
             and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.  Luk 17:33


One minute of Silence

If you travel to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, there is a grave marker 
just a few steps away from JFK's exactly like the thousands of others there. 
The engraving however identifies it as + MICHAEL HENDRICKSON 1LT USMC MONTANA.
 
Later I would go to the Viet Nam Memorial to search for 2 names-Mike's being one.

Mike Hendrickson was a forward air observer whose plane was shot down during the 
battle of Khe Sanh - one of the biggest battles of the war, 1968. 
By chance I ran into him on Okinawa at the Marine base there and we had lunch maybe 
a few weeks (?) prior to Khe Sanh. Somehow we got our picture taken together at the 
lunch table. Later I was able to send it to his mother in Montana with a note about 
my recollections with him. She, apparently, was single at the time but thankfully 
Mike had other siblings so it was not a total loss for Mrs. Hendrickson.

As you know, I only attended Maryknoll College my senior year so I never got to know 
Mike very well. But the image of him in a cassock with a never failing gentle smile 
on his face seems to be formed in memory. He was a guy any of us were proud to call 
"friend". I think we all would agree he was totally unassuming with never an unkind 
word. None of us would have guessed that such a warrior was behind that never failing 
exterior. 

Let me draw some inferences about this guy who was called Mike Hendrickson.
We know his intention was to live a life of service. It can be said of Mike that he 
was willing to lay down his life for his friends. (Reportedly over 800,000 were 
murdered by the NVN plus innumerable 'boat people'after the fall of Saigon in 1975)
He volunteered for one of the most hazardous jobs in the war - perhaps more hazardous
than being a helicopter pilot - maybe even without hazardous duty pay. 

From the world's standpoint my sense of loss of this man is great yet I can believe
that his underlying substrate that is in each of us is eternal.
                                            
It's been 42 years now. May he REST IN PEACE.

For our brothers who opposed this war and other wars(and ourselves):
"Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing. It merely looks, waits and judges not."
                                                                                 -ACIM

Closing Hymn: "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me"      - Unity 
                                                             
                                                            FINIS