A Vietnam veteran who died alone in New Jersey received an honor-filled sendoff when hundreds of people who had never met the man attended his funeral on Friday.
Peter Turnpu, who served in the Vietnam War for two years, was honorably discharged in 1966. This entitled him to a burial with full military honors, reported The Associated Press.
When the owner of LeRoy Wooster Funeral Home in Atco, N.J., learned of Turnpu’s plight, he not only paid for the services but invited the South Jersey community to attend.
“I really did not want the publicity and I am not a hero. The hero is Peter,” said LeRoy Wooster. “The heroes are the veterans who are here to honor him.”
Many who showed up claimed they did it out of a sense of duty and to honor a distinguished serviceman who had fought bravely for our country.
“This is his family now,” said funeral attendee William Boyd. “We are going to escort him over to (the cemetery) and stand in a flag line and pay him tribute.”
Turnpu lived by himself in a rented house, and a neighbor alerted authorities when he hadn’t been spotted in a while. The vet’s body was discovered Dec. 9.
“The only papers he saved were his immigration papers for him and his mother from Estonia and the letter from the Veterans Administration hospital,” said LeRoy Wooster. “There was nothing more recent than 30 or 40 years ago.”
