He befriended the ashes of a Vietnam veteran. Now he has to let him go.

Via Thang Bui

 

He served three tours in Vietnam, went through special forces training and became a Green Beret. He received the Bronze Star with Valor, the Army Air Medal for Heroism in Aerial Flight twice and a number of other medals. He learned Burmese. He worked in counter-intelligence and some of what he did is still classified, Rivera said. He retired in 1978 with a highly distinguished service record.

The ashes were found in a St. Petersburg attic. Nine years after his death, a soldier is buried with honors at Bay Pines National Cemetery.

Larry Rivera drove over the Gandy Bridge with the ashes of a man he’d never met.

This was before he was on a first-name basis with the urn. It was before he figured out exactly whose ashes were in it.

No one was sure what to do. Not the tenants who found the black and gold urn abandoned in the crawlspace of their St. Petersburg rental home. Not the dutiful neighbor they gave it to, who knew the dog tags found with it meant they had to do something and called a friend at MacDill Air Force Base.

And not Rivera, who ended up with the ashes.

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