Boots
on the ground: Vietnam hero earns place at Arlington
REST
IN PEACE --— The casket of Philadelphia native son
Michael Crescenz, who died a hero’s death in Vietnam,
will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on May 12.
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA - “He belongs with his brothers-in-arms
down in Arlington.”
U.S. Army Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz, a native son of the
Philadelphia Archdiocese who died a hero’s death in
Vietnam at age 19, will be buried Monday, May 12 at Arlington
National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
The transfer of Crescenz’s casket from Holy Sepulchre
Cemetery on a sunny afternoon on Friday, May 2 - temporarily
to a funeral home in Downingtown - was a stark contrast
to the soldier’s brutally cold burial day 40 years
ago this coming December.
“It’s just like yesterday I remember us burying
Michael,” said Joseph M. Crescenz, one of Michael’s
five brothers, who belongs to Our Lady of Consolation Parish
in Parkesburg.
“It was bitterly cold. Snow squalls came through.
As soon as that snow dissipated, it was over. ‘Taps’
was blown, they gave the gun salute, and we retreated back
home,” Joseph Crescenz said.
On May 2, Crescenz’s casket received a respectful
motorcade escort from Holy Sepulchre Cemetery to the Terry
Funeral Home in Downingtown. From there, it will leave for
Arlington at 8 a.m. Monday, May 12 with another police and
honor-guard escort in a full military procession. A burial
with full military honors is scheduled for 1 p.m. that day.
The casket will be accompanied to Arlington by state police
escorts and a procession that will include approximately
125 motorcycles representing the Philadelphia Police Department,
the Patriot Guard and the Vietnam Veterans Cycle Club.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph P. McFadden is scheduled to accompany
the Crescenz family for the transferal of the casket and
to offer prayers at the gravesite.
“It’s just a beautiful time of the year for
this to happen - being spring, a new rebirth,” Joseph
Crescenz said. “That’s very symbolic.
“It’s long overdue. … It’s a homecoming
for these veterans who are alive here today, to honor Michael,”
he added.
Among the veterans who attended the transferal to the funeral
home was 59-year-old Bill Stafford of East Hampton, Long
Island, N.Y.
Stafford, who served as a pall bearer at the transferal
service, had been a medic in Crescenz’s platoon and
was with Crescenz the day he died.
“He saved my life,” Stafford said. “He
showed a lot of bravery, and I’m grateful. I wasn’t
able to be around the first time he was buried and now I
am ….
“I think he deserves recognition - and he sure is
getting it,” Stafford added.
It was appropriate that the transferal occurred on the Feast
of St. Athanasius - Crescenz was an alumnus of St. Athanasius
School in Philadelphia.
Father Carl F. Janicki, president of Cardinal Dougherty
High School, offered prayers at the gravesite at Holy Sepulchre
Cemetery before the casket was transported to Downingtown.
Michael graduated from St. Athanasius School in 1962 and
from Cardinal Dougherty High School in 1966.
In his remarks at Holy Sepulchre, Father Janicki announced
the establishment of a scholarship in Crescenz’s name
to help a St. Athanasius student attend Cardinal Dougherty.
In addition to financial need, the student will demonstrate
virtues of sacrifice, honor and commitment - “those
things which Michael did on the grounds of Vietnam,”
Father Janicki said. “The whole point is to keep it
alive.”
“The Church remembers the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and all the other ultimate sacrifices that are modeled
after Christ’s sacrifice,” Father Janicki said.
“A day like today just makes that concrete and real.”
Julia Walsh, a Dougherty senior, was a flag bearer at the
service. “For us to honor a hero - and for a hero
to come out of Dougherty - it’s simply magnificent,”
she said.
The lengthy motorcade to the funeral home included a contingent
of police and the Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle group
consisting primarily of veterans whose main mission is to
attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes.
“It’s an honor,” said Frank Tacey, a Patriot
Guard Rider and member of Maternity B.V.M. Parish who served
in the U.S. Air Force. He left Vietnam in December 1968.
Prior to the prayer service, Tacey said, he thought about
the thousands of people who had passed by Holy Sepulchre
Cemetery but never knew Crescenz was buried there.
Tacey said he found it consoling that when Crescenz is reburied
in Arlington he will be with other veterans.
Nov. 20 will mark the 40th anniversary of Crescenz’s
death.
It was Joseph Crescenz - then a 12-year-old - who answered
a knock at the door one early Saturday morning four decades
ago to find a military official waiting outside his family’s
home. The officer had come to tell the family of Michael’s
death.
Joseph said Michael - the second of six sons of the late
Charles Jr. and Maryann Crescenz - was buried in Holy Sepulchre
Cemetery because it was in close proximity to where the
Crescenz family was living at the time.
Less than two years ago, Joseph approached his brothers
about investigating the possibility of having Michael buried
at the cemetery in Arlington. They agreed.
At Dougherty, Crescenz was a standout academic, varsity
baseball player and student leader. After graduation, he
enlisted in the Army and was deployed to Vietnam in September
1968.
Less than two months later, Cpl. Crescenz made the ultimate
sacrifice when his company engaged the North Vietnamese
Army in a gun battle. With two of his company’s men
already gunned down, he charged into the field, killing
six Vietnamese soldiers in enemy bunkers and providing his
comrades with the time they needed to reposition themselves
to defeat the enemy.
Five meters from the safety of a bunker, Cpl. Crescenz was
shot and killed.
His actions won him numerous posthumous medals, including
the Purple Heart and the nation’s highest military
decoration, which was then called the Congressional Medal
of Honor. It is now known as the Medal of Honor.
Crescenz is the only Philadelphian to receive the Medal
of Honor for service in Vietnam.
“It was a beautiful service,” Joseph Crescenz
said of the transferal. “It broke my heart, hearing
those words all over again. It just brought back a flood
of memories. It’s all good though. It’s a good
hurt.”
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached
at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
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