A Man Named Paul
Dennis Painter
George Montgomery
Tomas Gonzales
Known to my father as friends
because they share the face of black granite
next to his name on a wall.
Do their children, brothers or mothers
have their names captured in a frame
on the living room mantel?
Do the people these men left behind also know my father’s name
because they followed each other in death
by some coincidence or fate?
Somewhere else I’m sure a little boy
asks his father about his grandfather
who died in that war.
And while looking at a picture
that reflects a portion of the wall
where his grandfather’s name is held,
he wonders about a man named Paul.
Cris Larson
(son of Stagecoach pilot Paul Larson, KIA in the Apr ’68 mid-air collision)
On April 19, 1968 my father died. There is nothing that can change that, being that I was given the opportunity to meet you all, I simply thank God that he died as a member of the 155.
