Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones will perform on Friday, March 6, from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Michael Crescenz VFW Post 2819, 6850 Martins Mill Road (at Longshore Avenue) in Lawndale.
This show will benefit the post’s efforts to raise money for a statue to be erected honoring Army Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz, a Cardinal Dougherty High School graduate who earned the Medal of Honor for bravery in the Vietnam War.
The former Rising Sun Post was rededicated for Crescenz last November. A founding member of the Wolfe Tones, Warfield performed and recorded with the group for more than 37 years.
Looking to pass on the musical heritage of Ireland to the next generations, Warfield established the Young Wolfe Tones. Nominated as Ireland’s best folk group, they are known for their Irish rebel songs and traditional music.
Tickets for the benefit cost $40 and include wine, draft beer and soda. Call 267–242–6106 or go to www.mikedoughertyproductions.com
For more information on the band, visit www.theyoungwolfetones.com
Congress passed a bill signed into law that will rename the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, at 3900 Woodland Ave. in West Philadelphia, in memory of Crescenz.
Crescenz, an Army rifleman, is the only Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient from Philadelphia. President Richard Nixon posthumously awarded him the nation’s highest military decoration.
Crescenz was honored for the extraordinary actions he took on Nov. 20, 1968, in Vietnam’s Hiep Due Valley. The medal citation stated that the corporal “distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action” while serving as a rifleman with Company A.
On that November morning, his unit engaged a large, well-entrenched force of the North Vietnamese Army, whose initial burst of fire pinned down the lead squad and killed the two front men, halting the advance of Company A.
Crescenz left the relative safety of his position, grabbed a machine gun and charged 100 meters up a slope toward the enemy’s bunkers, killing the two occupants of each. Though machine-gun fire was aimed at him, he moved toward a third bunker, killing two men and momentarily clearing the way so his comrades could advance.
The enemy began firing from an unseen, camouflaged bunker. Crescenz had advanced within five meters of the bunker before he was mortally wounded.
Thanks to his actions, the soldiers in his company were able to maneuver freely with minimal danger, completing the mission and defeating the enemy.
Crescenz, 19, was a 1966 graduate of Dougherty, which closed in 2010. He was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham so his parents, Charles and Mary Ann, could visit his grave.
His family accepted the Medal of Honor from President Nixon during a White House ceremony in 1970. His name is on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Panel 38W, Line 016.
On May 2, 2008, Crescenz’s remains were exhumed from Holy Sepulchre. Ten days later, they were placed in a flag-draped casket for a pilgrimage to Arlington National Cemetery.
Hundreds of people attended the reburial ceremony on Arlington’s sacred grounds.
Crescenz was one of 27 Dougherty graduates killed in the Vietnam War. ••
