Whippany Vietnam vet named ‘Patriot of the Year’

HANOVER TWP. – A Vietnam veteran was recently honored for his service in the Vietnam War, where he served in the Graves Registration Unit of the Marine Corps.

Eddie Moscariello was named ‘Patriot of the Year’ by Whippany’s Monsignor John J. Sheerin Assembly of the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus on May 31.

Carmen Blandino, trustee of the Whippany Knights of Columbus and Korean War veteran, wanted to give the award to a deserving patriot, and thought Moscariello fit the bill.

“Eddie was very humbled,” Blandino said. “At first, he was hesitant to receive the award.”

Moscariello said he was surprised he was chosen out of so many deserving veterans.

“There are so many Patriots around,” Moscariello said. “No shortage of them in my own Marine Corps. League.”

Blandino said he has known Moscariello for a long time but learned much more about him after considering him for the award.

“The Graves Unit, it was surprising to hear,” Blandino said. “But it’s a group that definitely is necessary.”

Moscariello enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1965 and quickly entered the Vietnam War. He began in the Engineer Battalion before volunteering for the Graves Unit, devoted to leaving no soldier behind.

His responsibilities included entering the battlefield — sometimes under direct enemy fire — to gather the bodies, and body parts, of fallen soldiers to ensure they were returned home.

“It was interesting and strange, and nobody seems to know what it is,” Moscariello said. “How do you think the dead got home? Someone had to risk their life to go get them.”

Moscariello’s unit consisted of a platoon of 44 men, split up into five teams. His team regularly went to find downed aircraft.

Moscariello recalled a recent Marine Corps. League meeting, where an author read a passage that resonated with his days in the Graves Unit.

“We went after a plane and found pieces of people. The biggest piece was an arm, the co-pilot,” Moscariello said. “The sad part is those people were on their way home ... alot of instances like that.”

Moscariello was honored by the Whippany Knights of Columbus for bringing his comrades-in-arms back to the United States, where they could be buried near family and friends and rest in peace.

“Rest at a place where family and friends would be able to allow their hands to touch briefly upon the stone markers,” said Moscariello’s friend John White at the Patriot of the Year ceremony. “Rest at a place where visitors could remain for a while to chat. Rest at a place where those who knew them, who grew up with them, could offer up a silent prayer and allow tears to fall unashamedly.

White said Moscariello did the job assigned to him “as best as it could be done.”

“The job Eddie took on was doubly-damned,” White said. “It not only was a very difficult task, both physically and emotionally, to perform, it had more than its share of danger.”

Moscariello has earned Navy Achievement Medal with Combat V, RVN Gallantry Cross, RVN Civil Action Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal with four Bronze Stars. He has also earned two Navy Commendation ribbons, the Vietnam Service Medal, the National Defense Medal, and a Good Conduct Medal.

“I don’t think there are too many veterans out there who earned quite the amount of gratitude — often unspoken — from mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings and children than those who performed the types of duties that Eddie did,” White said. “These families well know that if it were not for the efforts of those unknown strangers who went out onto the fields of battle, searching for the bodies of those who had fallen in combat, the bodies of their loved ones would have never been gathered in, properly identified, and then prepared for the long and sad journey back home.”

White said he understands there are many who saw more “action” in battle and have done things considered more heroic than Moscariello, but that doesn’t mean what he did wasn’t an incredible feat.

“I suspect that the families, loved ones and friends of those warriors killed in battle offer up many a silent prayer of thanks for those who, like Eddie, gathered up the remains of the fallen, and saw to it that they were not allowed to just remain where they fell,” White said.

Moscariello lives in the Whippany section of Hanover Township with his wife and owns and operates ELM Plumbing.

He’s an active member of the Slattery Detachment of the Marine Corps. League, American Legion Post #155, Veteran’s Alliance of Hanover Township, Quartermaster of V.F.W Post #5351m and a member of the Hanover Senior Citizens Club.

Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636; mizzo@GannettNJ.com