This just in from Marc Levy:

Regret to inform you that Richard Boes, whose work opens More Than A Memory: Reflections of Vietnam passed away on 21 Feb 09.
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Richard Boes died yesterday at the VA Hospital in Albany NY. Richard enlisted into the US Army and served in Vietnam in 1969 – 1970 with the First Air Cav. He is the author of two books, The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive (2007) a first hand inquiry into why thousands of Vietnam Veterans have committed suicide and Last Train Out (2008). Right up to his death Richard was writing a third, In the Valley of Dry Bones.

You can read Richard’s recollection “POW Remembered” which was published in the VVAW publication The Veteran in Fall 2004 (Vol. 34, No. 2)

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“Above the line I know enough to know I know nothing. Less is missing, no greater than the whole, hole I’m in, bullets, buttons, and apart from. I’m dumber than a stone like a crumpled page, blood for ink at the price of fleshy gooseflesh. It’s a beautiful day, yeah, but I only want out. A simple song, a clear view to the bottom, out from the glass. The water’s deep, wiggles and divides, I’m a stick in the mud, a new-found mind set. And the gold finch in a feeding frenzy smacks up against itself. All vanity is glass. There’s no one I’m looking for, but most likely Myles is dead like all us good soldiers.”
                                                                                     –Richard Boes, Last Train Out