Frank DeAngelis, an honorary 'Band of Brothers' member, stands next to the various shadow boxes he made for members of the military. Michael J. Treola/ASHBURY PARK PRESS Visit the Photo Place

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Man builds tributes to fallen Marines

New Jersey man makes one-of-a-kind shadow boxes for fallen Marines, including a sergeant from Spotsylvania County.

Date published: 6/9/2008

By CATHY DYSON

After Marine Sgt. Joshua Frazier was killed by an Iraqi sniper last year, his family received sympathy cards from as far away as the Netherlands.

The outpouring from friends, neighbors and strangers was comforting.

"I'm in awe that people we will never meet would do that," said his mother, Shelia Cutshall of Spotsylvania County. "It helps to recognize what he did, what he gave."

Last month, Cutshall received an even more impressive honor for her son from another stranger.

It's a 20-by-20-inch shadow box, filled with the 11 medals, five patches and two shooting awards the 24-year-old earned before he died in February 2007.

It was assembled by New Jersey resident Frank DeAngelis, a World War II veteran who has made it his mission to honor every Marine killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.

"You have to remember, I came back from the war. I was one of the lucky ones," DeAngelis said during a phone interview. "God was good to me in my lifetime, and now it's my turn to give back."

The retired contractor has been building one-of-a-kind shadow boxes for more than 40 years. He has put together collections for every branch of the service, from privates to generals, for Navy buddies he served with and Medal of Honor recipients he never met.

For decades, he worked in his basement, and no one knew about his work except the recipients.

That was fine by him.

Then in 2003, after he read, "Band of Brothers," DeAngelis started doing shadow boxes exclusively for the 101st Airborne members of Easy Company. The soldiers made him an honorary member--something they had never done before, according to the Band of Brothers Web site.

The press got a hold of the story, "and all hell broke loose after that," DeAngelis joked. He got letters from across the world.

A few years later, he made shadow boxes for Rhode Island Marines killed in Iraq. He had been cutting back on the boxes because, after all these years, he was getting tired of the assembly.

But, then, he got such touching letters from the families who received them that he rededicated himself. He vowed to create a shadow box for every Marine killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In New Jersey, Frank DeAngelis works with the 6th Motor Transport Battalion in Red Bank to get information he needs to put together shadow boxes honoring fallen Marines. DeAngelis knows the commandant as well as other top-ranking officials. When they learned of his mission, they told casualty officers to give him all the help he needed, said Warrant Officer Sean Smith. Each Tuesday, Smith's out- fit gets the names of three Marines killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. They take the portfolios to DeAngelis that evening. DeAngelis assembles the service bars and awards, attaches them to Velcro and arranges them in an oak box. The unusual duty isn't part of the Red Bank unit's assignment, but the Marines help DeAngelis because of an arrangement he had with a former officer. They'll continue to help him as long as he makes the boxes, Smith said. "He's a great friend of the Marine Corps," he said. "Everything he does is phenomenal."

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Date published: 6/9/2008

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