This poem by his dad was written in memory of Ira Lanny Scott (1947-1967) who fought against sending his college classmates to the Viet Nam slaughter while he was dying of leukemia.

is spirit survives in a portion of a prayer that was constantly on his mind: “God bless the young people in their striving to realize the full potential for living and human happiness that God has given to each of them.”

I have no misgivings about the erection of a monument to those who were sucked into this ugly Nam War, for “they laid their good lives down.” But I think that even the Viet Nam Veterans today recognize the courage and rightness of those who protested against this colossal wastage of good lives.

I suffered no less than my country

For a “victory” so soon undone

For a land is rich with its many lives

While I had only one

For obeying the commands of conscience

They gave me a prison’s gloom

For loving the hills and sunlight

Sleep in an unmarked tomb

Robert S. W. Scott

veteran World War II

357th infantry 90th division

Sycamore