by Patrick Bowen, New Cumberland, PA

On September 4, 1968 I arrived in Jacksonville, Fl to report to the military receiving facility to be transported to Parris Island for boot camp. I was late arriving at the recruiting office in the post office building, missing the van that took other recruits to the receiving facility. A grumbling Marine agreed to drive me out to the facility since he was heading that way. He turned on the radio, never saying a word to me. A song began shortly as we drove out of the downtown area and played until we arrived. It was “Hey Jude.” The song stayed in my head for the rest of the day as I traveled with other recruits to Parris Island. I found myself singing it to myself throughout the first 72 hours without sleep in boot camp.

Months later when I was waiting for news of my first duty station I heard a radio in a parked car playing “Hey Jude.” Then about 10 years later I sat alone in a theater processing through the movie “Coming Home” I lost it when they played “Hey Jude” as Bruce Dern and other Marines were staging to be shipped to ‘Nam.

On one visit to the Wall I heard a car passing near with “Hey Jude” playing, setting a haunting ambiance.

“And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain / Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders / Well don’t you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool / By making his world a little colder”

The world remains “a little colder” without the guys remembered on the Wall.