Richard Boes (October 8, 1949 - February 21, 2009)

Richard Boes, author of The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive & Last Train Out, died on February 21 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Albany, NY. Richard was a Viet Nam veteran whose struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he painfully & vividly chronicled in his books. In recent years he lived in Rhinebeck NY & read on many occasions at venues in the area, including the Colony Cafe & the Woodstock Poetry Society. I was privileged to read with Richard a number of times at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock, both in open mics & as co-features together.

Last year when he was at the VA medical center in Albany undergoing cancer treatment, I got to know him a little over coffee & driving around the city. He did readings & book-signings at Java Jazz in Delmar, most recently in December after his second book, Last Train Out, was published. He was working on his 3rd novel in his this trilogy, In the Valley of Dry Bones.

As Larry Winters, author of The Making and Unmaking of a Marine, & of the play, Nothing Means Nothing, wrote:

"When the Last Dead Soldier Left Alive, boarded the Last Train Out
he knew where it was going and how fast it would take to get there.
He rode proud, riding point for me and the Nam brothers still waiting at the station."

Peace, brother.

[Both of Richard Boes' novels are available from iUniverse.]