N.J. Shore family pleads for return of stolen funeral flag of Vietnam War sailor

For nearly a decade, the family of Seaman Patrick M. Corcoran has flown an American flag outside its Jersey Shore home on special occasions to honor the Philadelphia native lost at sea during the Vietnam War. It was the flag presented to the family nearly 50 years ago at his funeral.

But early on the morning of July 4, someone snatched the huge flag from a flagpole on East 11th Avenue in North Wildwood only hours after it had been hoisted for the holiday.

Now there is outrage among not only the Corcoran family and Shore officials but also in the emotions shared in a social-media campaign started by neighbors and the town to immediately return the cherished heirloom - one of the family's only physical connections to Corcoran, who died aboard the USS Frank E. Evans in 1969.

"The emotional attachment to that flag makes this extremely unfortunate," North Wildwood Mayor Patrick T. Rosenello said. "This is probably some younger people thinking this is funny. It's not funny, and it's not a joke."

Police are aggressively searching for the bandits, who are suspected in at least two other recent flag thefts in North Wildwood.

"I find it deplorable that anyone would steal a flag from anywhere," said John Coffey, a spokesman for the USS Frank E. Evans Association. "Sadly, in today's society, there is no respect for the flag or the country anymore. A life was given in order for this particular flag to be flown, and only a scumbag would do something like this."

The Corcoran family has launched a massive public appeal.

"We want the flag back. It's what we have left of his memory," his brother Tom Corcoran, 56, of Langhorne said in an interview Wednesday.

Patrick Corcoran, 19, of the Torresdale section in Philadelphia, was among 74 sailors who perished aboard the Frank E. Evans when it collided with an Australian aircraft carrier June 3, 1969, in the South China Sea.

The Navy destroyer was cut in half, its bow sinking within minutes. Corcoran, asleep in his rack, died along with the 73 others; their bodies were never recovered. Only 37 sailors survived.

An American flag was presented to his father, Tom Corcoran Sr., by the military at a Mass in Philadelphia for Patrick in June 1969. The elder Corcoran kept the flag until he died in 2006, his son said. The flag was passed on to Tom and an older sister, Suzanne Meissler, 62, of Laurel Springs, N.J., with instructions from their father to fly it occasionally.

A family tradition began to fly the flag annually on Memorial Day, Corcoran said. The remainder of the year, the huge flag was kept safely tucked away in a cherished keepsake box stored either in North Wildwood or Langhorne.

This year, the flag was hoisted instead for the July 4 holiday because it rained on Memorial Day, Corcoran said. It was to remain up only for a day.

A neighbor, Tom Schaffer, who lives next door on 11th Avenue, put up the flag on the morning of July 3, with help from his son and Corcoran to prevent the flag, measuring about 5 by 91/2 feet, from touching the ground.

Schaffer, 73, an Army veteran and retired Philadelphia police officer, proudly saluted the flag after it was up, as was his custom.

The next morning, shortly after sunrise, Schaffer was sitting on his porch sipping a cup of coffee when he noticed something was terribly wrong: The flag was missing.

"I said, 'Oh, my God,' " Schaffer said. "My heart went right down to the floor. I was heartbroken."

Corcoran notified police, and detectives were sent to canvass the neighborhood, North Wildwood Police Capt. John Stevenson said. Police are also checking surveillance cameras, he said.

Stevenson said the neighborhood is near the town's popular entertainment district and the culprits may have been partygoers. Police hope that "the person who did this has a guilty conscience," he said.

"We are going to try to do our best to recover the flag," Stevenson said. "Our hearts go out to the family."

The family has received numerous offers to replace the flag, which had no identifiable markings. Corcoran said the family just wants its flag returned, no questions asked.

The oldest of three, Patrick Corcoran graduated from Father Judge High School in 1968 and decided to enlist in the Navy, following in his father's footsteps, his brother said. After his military duty, Patrick planned to return to school and become a funeral director.

Tall, with sandy brown hair and blue eyes, Patrick was strikingly handsome. As a youngster, he delivered newspapers and pizzas.

When his parents divorced, Patrick helped his father, a grocery store butcher, raise his two siblings. Tom was 9 when his brother was killed.

"He was always impeccably dressed and a happy-go-lucky young man," Tom recalled. "We often talk about how different our family would be if he was still alive today."

The family and the Evans Association, a group of veterans and their relatives, have been fighting for years to have those lost at sea recognized by the military.

The Evans was supporting U.S. forces from off the coast of Vietnam when it sank while participating in training exercises with five other ships.

However, the Defense Department's casualty list didn't include the Evans sailors because the shipwreck occurred outside the official "combat zone."

The designation kept their names off the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, something the families and association want to change. (Corcoran's name was added to the Philadelphia memorial in 1988, a year after it was dedicated.)

"Seventy-four sailors lost their lives. The government will not put their names on the wall," Tom Corcoran said.

mburney@phillynews.com

856-779-3814 @mlburney

For more information about the USS Frank E. Evans visit http://www.ussfee.org