By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Marching in the Memorial Day Parade, a fellow veteran carried Marine Cpl. Dominic Orlando’s Purple Heart and several other medals back home to Bernardsville. The 20-year-old Orlando fought in World War II and they called his name here when they read the list of heroes who served and died.
In the summer of 1944, Dominic Orlando stormed the beaches on Saipan Island, with 71,000 fellow Marines. Almost 3,000 American troops died there — Orlando was among the 10,500 wounded. But Orlando’s fate took a strange, deeply ironic twist.
“Orlando was to receive the Purple Heart. He came home on leave and was killed in an automobile accident. He never received it,” said VFW Post #7858 Kevin Barry.
The Orlando family moved away. Then out of the blue, from the bottom of an old mailbox in Morristown came the surprise. Former Postal Supervisor Michael Rosky vividly remembers opening an unmarked box and finding Orlando’s paperwork.
“I was actually shocked. I didn’t know how it got inside the collection box. Who put it in there, what happened,” said Roksy.
He went online and googled up a group called Purple Hearts Reunited founded in 2012 by Capt. Zachariah Fike.
“This happens a lot to us, we receive about three to five medals a week in the mail,” said Fike.
Fike volunteers his own time and money to find these medals’ proper homes. He couldn’t find Orlando’s family, so he came here.
Over the past couple of years, Fike has returned more than 100 lost Purple Hearts and brought them back where they really belong. He returned three to New Jersey today.
In Kearny, Fike returned Private Wilfred Warhurst’s Purple Heart. The World War II soldier died after being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Someone had found his medal lying in a parking lot years ago and recently gave it to Fike. He also brought George Greer’s Purple Heart home to Harrington Park.
“My own personal oath is this before all of you and God: I will never quit, I will not rest, I will not take my last breath, until every single lost medal is returned to its family of the vet who earned it. It is a great honor to bring Orlando’s medals home to you. Please honor them, respect them,” said Fike.
Orlando’s medals will be displayed in the Bernardsville library.
The vets here all hope someone in the Orlando’s family sees the story — and finally brings it back to his family.