Fitzgibbon's name is finally etched in stone
Published on May 5th, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - Donning her skates on a cold winter's afternoon more than 40 years ago, Kathleen Sullivan looked across the small pond behind her home and saw an old friend. Richard Fitzgibbon, Jr., or Dick as he was known to those closest to him, was stationed on the outskirts of his fishing hole, waiting patiently for the slightest nibble.
When he saw Kathleen skating toward him, a smile broke across his face.
"We had a real nice discussion talking about when we were younger," Sullivan remembers of this long ago conversation, the last she would have with Fitzgibbon. "He was a special young man."
Soon after, Fitzgibbon, a technical sergeant in the U.S. military, was transported for duty to the South Pacific. He would not return, however, dying in Saigon in 1956.
For decades, the Fitzgibbon family fought to have his name emblazoned on the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in Washington D.C. They stated that the Stoneham native had given his life for his country and deserved such recognition despite the fact that the U.S. military had set 1961 as the official starting date for the Vietnam War.
At 10:30 am on Wednesday morning, their pleas were formally answered as the name of Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr. was etched into the Vietnam Memorial.
"He was the best guy that God ever made," said his sister, Alice DelRossi, who led a crusade which resulted in the change of the official war starting date from 1961 to 1956. "His whole life was dedicated to serving his country."
DelRossi explained that she was unable to attend the service on Wednesday, but would make the trek for the official ceremony on Memorial Day, May 31, 1999.
After fighting for years to get her brother his just reward, DelRossi and her family were notified in November of last year of the good news. Since that time, local and national news coverage has generated an outpouring of support for the cause.
"It's an emotional thing. I still haven't finished returning letters to all the people that sent them, thanking them," said DelRossi.
U.S. Representative Edward Markey was among those in attendance for the ceremony.
"(Wednesday) is yet another extraordinary event for an extraordinary family which lost both a father and a son in the same conflict (Richard B. Fitzgibbon III also died in Vietnam in 1965) and then fought and won their own campaign to see their sacrifice permanently acknowledged on the sacred black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial," Markey explained. "It represents a milestone for all those servicemen who, like Tech. Sgt. Fitzgibbon, were sent to South Vietnam earlier than we were willing to admit but no earlier than the mission began."
Sullivan, who was friends with the Fitzgibbon siblings in years past, explains that Richard was a unique individual.
"He was as gentlemanly as a fellow can be," she said of her childhood friend. "He had a serenity about him that was very unusual. He had a tranquility about him that was very special."
Still residing in Stoneham, now on Middlesex Road, Sullivan says that their final conversation was held a short time before he was transported to the Far East. His mannerisms, however, did not reveal his trepidation about moving to a distant land and trying to protect those in South Vietnam.
"We just discussed things that went on in town," she explained. "We didn't talk about any war, although that's about the time when things started happening. We talked about his sisters who I was friends with. I know his sisters loved him dearly.
"He had a lot of fun in him. He would evoke nothing but good memories for anyone who knew him," Sullivan continued.
"He was a peach of a guy."
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