George J. Belancin

"He was a Marine through and through," said Belancin's wife, a German schoolteacher he met while stationed in Munich, Belancin had enlisted in the Marine Corps when he was 17 years old after attending South Philadelphia High School. He served in the Mediterranean, Japan, Germany, Hawaii and Cuba and in Vietnam for 15 months in 1965 and 1966. In June 1968, the 31-year-old staff sergeant returned to Vietnam, where he was a platoon sergeant in Company M of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine died in Quang Nam Province on Sept. 3, 1968. Survivors included his wife and two daughters.