Officials in Bucks County have gone through with the renaming of a local bridge to honor a man who gave the ultimate sacrifice decades ago. Jeff Gammage wrote about the bridge for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
David Ortals, a Marine corporal from Levittown, died in Vietnam in 1970. Now, almost 53 years after his death, County Bridge No. 15 was renamed as the CPL David John Ortals, USMC Memorial Bridge after a ceremony in Middletown Township.
Ed Preston, the head of the Pennsylvania Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, was present at the renaming ceremony, along with Dennis Best, a childhood friend of the Ortals who now serves as the vice president of the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Ortal’s mother, Winifred, watched the ceremony from her home in Arizona.
Before enlisting to serve overseas, Ortals attended Bishop Egan High School in Fairless Hills before transferring and eventually graduating from Neshaminy High School in Langhorne.
Read more about the renamed bridge in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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