north carolina Vietnam vet who died Christmas Eve finally laid to rest

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C.

When a Vietnam War veteran died Christmas Eve with no family nearby, a community of veterans, a friend and military supporters in North Carolina stepped up to make sure he was finally laid to rest with military honors.

They ensured that Phillip “Flip” Drye’s military paperwork, delayed by last winter’s government shutdown, arrived. A funeral home covered burial expenses. The Army provided soldiers to fold the U.S. flag and play taps. And more than 100 veterans and others, many of them strangers, attended the service last week at Salisbury National Cemetery.

A roommate had found Drye, an Army medic who received the Bronze Service Star, dead of a probable heart attack about 4 a.m. Dec. 24 at his home in Concord, said Drye’s longtime friend, Mark Blackwelder of Concord.

Blackwelder, 56, was 13 years old when he met Drye, who was 11 years older.

“He was more of a father and mentor to me than my own father,” he said in a phone interview.

They shared a Cherokee heritage and enjoyed hunting for arrowheads. His friend was known as “Flip” because, as a child, he was unable to pronounce “Phillip” or “Phil,” and his efforts sounded like “Flip.”

Drye, who held the rank of specialist 4, didn’t like to talk about Vietnam, Blackwelder said. He was divorced and had no children, he said.