The following two stories were taken from Donald F. Crosby, S.J.s book entitled “Battlefield Chaplains” p. 43.
On afternoon, [Fr Thomas M.] Reardon was burying a young marine, he and another soldier found an American flag wrapped carefully inside the jacket of the dead man. It seemed that he wanted desperately to protect the flag, probably to keep the enemy from deliberately violating or profaning it. Reardon asked, “Why don’t we save the flag?” His young assistant replied quickly, “Oh no, Padre, he died for this flag.” So, they wrapped the body of the young marine in the flag that had come to mean so much to him and lowered him gently into his final resting place.
Father Reardon found that the hardest part of his work was helping marines who were grieving the death of their friends. One example would always stand uppermost in his memory. Two brothers, Andrew and Bernard Fetchko of New Jersey, had landed on the island at the same time. Reardon had taken a special interest in them, in part because he, too, came from New Jersey but in part because he found them so friendly and likeable. One morning, Andrew became so ill with malaria that he could not report for duty at the front. His brother went out, however, and shortly afterward died on a patrol. Later that same day, the marines wrapped young Bernard Fetchko’s body in a blanket and carried it to the cemetery, After Reardon had finished reading the prayers of internment6, Andrew slowly unwrapped the blanket to take one final look at his brother. Then he carefully wrapped the blanket around the body gain and helped lower it into the grave. For a moment, he stared at his brother’s grave, stupefied with grief. Then he suddenly fell to the ground, grabbed Reardon’s legs, and held them tight, his body convulsed with sobs. Reardon did his best to comfort him, but he realized the inadequacy of his words. After a time, young Andrew Fetchko raised himself up and walked with determined stride out of the cemetery, resolved now to avenge the death of his brother.