Boots
on the ground: Vietnam hero earns place at Arlington
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.