From Lincoln Park Michigan, he was a young man Filled with dreams, but he paused to his to do his duty when he joined the Marines.

The training was exhausting, tough, and brutally mean to turn a boy into a man, then the man into Marine. Time was so very short to prepare him on his way, to enter the world of soldiering and the hellish Asian fray.

He endured what no man should endure, the shudder of a dying friend, as his thoughts turned to the home he loved and when the war would end.

But his test was only beginning when on a wretched, fog, filled night, the little hill he sat upon was engulfed in a raging fight! Men were locked together, entwined in desperate means, one the Asian soldier the other a Marine.

Riding swiftly across the hill came the angel all called Death, as he reached down to touch the fallen, and to steal their dying breaths. And as night gave way to day and shadows were laid to rest, those that survived the withering storm knew they had passed the test.

From the mired earth of warfare and countless battle scenes, This young man stepped forward to lead and teach Marines. And when a Marine was shattered and his body badly torn, God whispered to John Higgins" For this moment you were born."

Rising up with courage to face the lashing tide, John Higgins never stumbled, or faltered in his stride. Marines will always remember what he did for so many others, he that gave up his life to save a wounded brother.

For John Francis Higgins

Killed December 8, 1968

Recipient of the "Sliver Star"

Poem written by Jack C. Perritt