Stolen Casket Flag Was Family’s Sole Memento

NORTH WILDWOOD – Tom Schaffer woke early, as usual, got his coffee and went to sit on the porch of his East 11th Avenue home in North Wildwood July 4. That was when he noticed the casket flag, flown in honor of the late Navy Seaman Patrick M. Corcoran, was missing, stolen from his flagpole in the night. 
Thomas Corcoran, Patrick’s brother, and his wife Suzanne are neighbors of Schaffer who for over a decade has flown the casket flag on Schaffer’s prominent flagpole annually as a memorial to the seaman who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
Inclement weather prevented the ceremony from taking place on Memorial Day as usual, and so the family and neighbors used Independence Day as their day of honor this year. 
Seaman Patrick Corcoran was one of a 272-member crew aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Frank E. Evans on the morning of June 3, 1969.
At 3 a.m., with most of the crew asleep, the Evans was struck and cut in two by a hit from the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne. As the Evans sank, frantic efforts to rescue the crew succeeded in saving many but by no means all.
Corcoran, 19, of Philadelphia, serving his country in the waters of the South China Sea, was one of 74 dead whose bodies were never recovered.
The mortal remains of Patrick Corcoran were lost to the sea. The flag, which had been draped over an empty casket, as part of a military funeral for the young sailor, was all the family got after the accident off the coast of Vietnam.
Thomas Corcoran, nine years younger than his older brother, inherited the flag from his parents.
At a press conference in front of North Wildwood’s 15th Avenue Firehouse, the Corcorans, along with Mayor Patrick Rosenello, and veterans advocate Joe Griffies, of Rio Grande, pleaded for the flag’s return.
Taken perhaps as part of misguided holiday revelry, the flag means so much more than pranksters could have known, Rosenello said. A quick return of the flag, no questions asked, would mean no charges pressed by the family.
Rosenello made clear that police would “do everything in their power” to find those who took the flag if it is not returned.
Griffies said that a reward of some sort would be paid for the flag’s return. “We are not saying how much, but it will be a nice sum,” said Griffies.
He added that there is certain information that would help him ensure that anyone seeking the reward returned the correct flag.
For Thomas and Suzanne Corcoran the goal is simple: ‘We just want the flag back,” he said with the grief over its loss clear to anyone who heard his halting voice.
Rosenello called on those who took the flag to understand its greater importance and to “do the right thing.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.