A Veterans Lament Composers Note

On September 11th, 2001, I was in Vietnam for a performance of my Symphony For The Sons of Nam by the Ho Chi Minh Symphony Orchestra. While waiting in a Saigon Hotel, the TV displayed the destruction of the World Trade Centers. I immediately called home and made plans to return to Carol and Becky.

Once back in Chicago, I took a stroll along the Lake, as water has always soothed my soul, and contemplated where we were heading as a country.

In 2003, we began a new aggressive conflict that sent our young men and women into battle. As with Vietnam, those young souls fortunate to return home had wounds and trauma that we can never truly comprehend.

As a veteran, I have an unbreakable bond with all those who served. We have all contributed to the life that we live today. 

I am deeply sad for my fellow veterans who did not return from the battlefield. I wrote this last chapter in memoriam as I looked out at Lake Michigan and realized how lucky I was to have returned from war while so many of my brothers and sisters-in-arms made the ultimate sacrifice. 

I truly mourn those lives lost in service to our way of life.