When we laid my brother Michael Crescenz to rest after he was killed in Vietnam in 1968, I thought that was the end of the story. It wasn't, thanks to the local veteran community.
LAST WWII MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT'S FOUNDATION CARRIES ON LEGACY HELPING GOLD STAR FAMILIES: ‘HERE TO SERVE’
We did not know most of these people, but began to understand that this was not just a funeral for a stranger, but rather an honor bestowed on a"brother in arms." It was the funeral they couldn’t attend when they were overseas. It was the honor and recognition that they did not receive when they returned home.
Mary Ann Crescenz holds her son Joe while her older boys, from left, Charlie, Pete and Michael, pose in the backyard of their Philadelphia home, 1957. As I started to get to know many of these veterans in the weeks and months after Mike’s reburial, they started to come to me with other ideas about honoring him. My parents never made a big deal about what Mike did because other families – in our neighborhood and throughout the city – had losses too, some without recognition of any kind.
Mike did not live long enough to become a veteran, but he would be as proud of them as they are of him.Joe Crescenz wrote the foreword for the recently released book about his brother,"
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