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| Dan Fraley reads the letter from David Bauer |
The combat veteran had a simple request.
“All I am asking is that my body be buried with the respect I earned.”
David L. Bauer made his plea in the same two-page, undated handwritten letter that he sent to four people in May 1999. Bucks County Director of Military Affairs Dan Fraley was only months into his new county job when the letter arrived.
“My name is David L. Bauer and upon receipt of this letter I will most likely be dead…” it started.
In flowing script, the 51-year-old Bristol Township man explained that he couldn’t get the Vietnam War and the deaths of two friends out of his head. He had served in the U.S. Navy, earning a Purple Heart and a Combat Action ribbon.
“Sir, as I have no living relatives, father, mother, brother, sister, wife or children, no one will claim this body. Please see that I am buried in the nearest national cemetery to Bristol Pa. as I have no burial plot.”
He included a hand-drawn sketch of how he wanted his headstone to appear.
“Thank you for taking care of your fellow war veteran. This is the only thing I have asked for the VA, a burial with respect.”
Was this a prank, Fraley wondered. “I didn’t believe it was real, at first.”
Moments after he finished reading the letter his phone rang. A staffer for then-Bucks County Congressman Jim Greenwood was calling about a disturbing letter his office received from a Vietnam veteran.
The first call Fraley made then was to Bristol Township police. An officer, who had also received the letter, went to Bauer’s home. Bauer was dead.
His body was transferred to the Bucks County Coroner’s Office, where if no one claimed him in 30 days he would be cremated, Fraley was told.
Fraley, who served in the Vietnam War, wasn’t about to let that happen.
He started calling local funeral homes. Three turned him down. The fourth was owned by a World War II veteran who agreed to claim the body and handle arrangements for free.
Fraley contacted the Veterans’ Administration office in Philadelphia, where it turned out Bauer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome, but never showed up for treatment, Fraley said.
Burial with full military honors was arranged at the Beverly National Cemetery in Burlington County, across the river from Bristol Township.
He reached out to a local Vietnam Veterans organization who gathered members to attend the service. Bauer's headstone appears exactly how he drew it.
“We got him everything he wanted,” Fraley said recently. “We were able to do more for him in death, than we were able to do for him in life. I’m still sad about it.”
Fraley has the letter pinned to a cork board in his office. He reads it at local veteran events.
It reminds him the community needs to make sure veterans are taken care of in life and death.
“You try to do what the man asked for,” he said. “It was the right thing to do."
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