PFC. Rocco J. De Mercurio
Tags: Memorial Day, 2020, Vietnam War, New Jersey, Usmc

PFC. Rocco J. De Mercurio

We have never met, Jerry, but I remember you.

I remember the gold star on the street sign that bears your name. I remember reading it each time I would turn left onto it as I drove to work at the A&P grocery store. I was just about your age when I made that drive — 19. I remember the flood of imagery simply reading your name would yield and run wildly through my mind; Your childhood — just like mine. Summer days spent at Crestwood Lake, thinking that all of the bad, the terrifying and the evil that has ever existed on this earth could not possibly touch the bucolic life Allendale, New Jersey provided its youth. School years spent at Brookside Middle School & Northern Highlands Regional High School — schools that your voice and presence filled its halls with. Structures that were home to your personality and gave birth to dreams you held for your future self — outside of Allendale. I remember you in those halls.

I remember the first time I saw your picture, Jerry. In your Marine Corps Dress Blues. The pride I was filled with knowing that someone from the town I was raised in wore the uniform that my Grandfather, Nicholas Coiro, wore during World War II. A uniform in which I become very emotional seeing just I did in November 2018 in Washington DC as a young Marine Corps Captain — wearing his dress blues — enjoyed a late night slice of pizza with his date after the Marine Corps Ball. How did you feel wearing that uniform, Jerry? Did you think another Allendale boy, that you would never meet, born 20 years after your death would look at that same picture with pride? That little boy is now 31 and remembers you.

I remember reading the Command Chronology reports documenting your company’s activity in Vietnam weeks before you were mortally wounded by a grenade during an ambush on July 13 1969. What did you remember as you carried your M-79 into combat? What memories did you hold onto from your life in Allendale that kept your spirits high each and every day as you fought a war many of your classmates never would? Did you think they were worth it? That future Allendale residents were worth the risk each time you went out on patrol? I hope you did, Jerry. I hope you know that we remember you and your sacrifice.

What did you imagine for yourself, Jerry, after life in Allendale? Did you envision what it would be like to revisit Allendale after you had fulfilled some of your life’s dreams — just as I do? Did you envision yourself wearing the coveted United States Marine Corps Dress Blues in front of your friends & classmates as I had once fantasized about one day wearing but never had the courage to do? Did, as a kid, you ever daydream about who of your Allendale classmates you would potentially marry and have a family with — just as I did? Did you imagine what it would be like to raise children in Allendale — just as I have? I remember those thoughts and with those memories — I remember you.

I remember seeing, on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, your misspelled name and feeling both angry and incredibly heartbroken that our country could not etch your name into stone correctly. That, for as long as our great nation exists, your name would be incorrectly displayed. I remember crying as I thought of a 19 year old boy giving so much but receiving so little in return.

I remember your name, Rocco J. De Mercurio, today — Memorial Day 2020 — and every day.

With eternal gratitude — Your Allendale neighbor.

RC

Jerry with his M-79 in Vietnam.