“All present and accounted for,” the assembled veterans responded as John Lonergan solemnly recited the names of each of Fishtown’s fallen sons. Each name resonated in the damp, heavy air as the crowd looked on in near silence.

At the corner of Marlborough St. and Wildey St., about 75 people gathered at noon on Memorial Day to remember the soldiers who died serving the United States.

The Cpl. Charles J. Glenn III Memorial commemorates the young Marine from Fishtown who was killed on July 7, 1967 in an ambush outside the city of Da Nang. Nearly 50 years later, Glenn III’s memory lives as locals refuse to let a native son be forgotten.

Veterans, neighbors, friends and families stood alongside the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Society and the Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipes and Drums to honor the sacrifices made by 11 young men from Fishtown and veterans in general.

“It’s important for me to be here. For my son, too,” Pat Waxler, 33, said, standing with his six-year-old son. “This is the second or third year I’ve made sure we come out. I think the sacrifices soldiers made are easier to understand and appreciate when they could have been your neighbors.”

Between military marches and drum rolls, family members and veterans placed wreaths at the base of memorial. The crowd seemed most enthused by the children’s wreath, presented by “the future of the Glenn memorial,” as one older gentleman said.

“We’re here to remember our neighbors, our brothers and our sons,” said John Lonergan, the chairman of the memorial committee. “This is the 30th year that the veterans memorial society has joined us and the 19th year for the PPF band. It’s really a neighborhood event.”

At the end of the service, the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Society honored the fallen with a three-volley salute and the band played the Marines’ Hymn.

After the salute, the crowd quickly dispersed though many made sure to thank the veterans for their service and the memorial committee for ensuring that Glenn III and the ten others are not forgotten.

The memorial is an engraved gray stone with a list of the deceased. Initially, only Glenn III’s name was carved into the memorial but by the end of the ‘60s, three more soldiers from Fishtown had been killed. In the ‘80s, a call was put out for the families and friends of other neighborhood soldiers to come forward and the total rose to 11.

Behind the stone is a simple garden of bamboo and at either corner of the lot, purple flowers grow in planters in memory of the wounded.

The Memorial Day ceremony at the Cpl. Charles J. Glenn III memorial is a neighborhood tradition that stretches back to 1986. In the years before, a new memorial committee had formed and worked to restore the memorial in respect of the deceased and so the younger members of the Fishtown community would know more of their neighborhood history.

“We do this all ourselves,” Lonergan said, gesturing to the crowd. “No government funding, nothing from the city. If work needs to be done we make some calls and get it done.”

As the memorial committee grows older, they are considering starting a nonprofit so that the future caretakers of the memorial may be eligible for outside funding.

The Cpl. Charles J. Glenn III Memorial was one of the earliest Vietnam memorials in America. The memorial was dedicated on Veterans Day, 1967. The site of the memorial was cleared and developed by a group of WWII, Korea and Vietnam veterans eager to show their respect for a brother-in-arms.

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, services were held on Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Veterans Day. The services stopped after the Fall of Saigon but local businesses and community members pitched in to maintain the memorial.

Lonergan said that the 30th service was a success and that he looks forward to the future and the work of the next generation of caretakers.