Brian Jones reads David Cline with "Touch A Name On The Wall"

David Cline
January 8, 1947 - September 15, 2007:

David Cline was a highly decorated, disabled Vietnam War combat veteran. Returning stateside he became active in the Oleo Strut coffeehouse near Fort Hood, Texas, as described in "Sir No Sir!" the award-winning documentary about GI resistance. He served as a national coordinator of Vietnam Veterans Against the War for more than 20 years. As President of Veterans For Peace 2002-2007, he oversaw tremendous membership growth and helped start Iraq Veterans Against the War. He also co-founded the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.

Reading in Video comes from the book:Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, an Oral History.

“They had a GI coffeehouse at Fort Hood, a place called the Oleo Strut. ... The GI movement started at Fort Hood—the Fort Hood Three, three years before I got there, guys who refused to go to Vietnam. That began to plant the seed. The soil was fertile because the reality was that the government was lying to us. Most people are decent people. They don’t want to go kill people and engage in brutality.... I went down there and got involved in publishing an underground newspaper called the Fatigue Press. We were putting out literature against the war and against the military and for GI rights and against racism.”
—Dave Cline on organizing inside the U.S. Army, from the book Winter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Twayne's Oral History Series)



Touch A Name On The Wall
© 1988 Joel Mabus
sung by Annie and the Vets

Well, I guess you could call it our summer of freedom,
the year that we both turned eighteen -
We hitch-hiked to Denver, fresh out of high school
man, we were sights to be seen.
And that was the year that you dated my cousin, 'til
they took us away in the fall.
Now I dearly wish you were standing here with me as
I touch your name on the wall.

Touch a name on the wall,
Touch a name on the wall.
God help us all
Touch a name on the wall.

Every time I come here I wear my fatigues,
to honor the men that I knew.
I touch every name that came from my outfit,
and I read them out loud when I do.
Now some people say that they all died for nothing,
well, I don't completely agree -
'Cause this brother here didn't die for no country -
He died for me.

[chorus]

Now, usually walls are made for division
- to separate me from you.
But God bless the wall that brings us together,
and reminds us of what we've been through.
And God damn the liars and the tin-plated heroes
who trade on the blood of such men.
God give us the strength to stand up and tell them -
Never again!

[chorus]


You can find out more about Dave, that I have put together Here, collected from various sources after Dave passed away.