Air Force Capt. Edward A. Brudno, who was found dead Sunday, apparently a suicide, in the home of his parents-in-law in Harrison, N.Y., will be buried Friday in Sharon Memorial Park near Quincy, Mass. rather than in Arlington National Cemetery.
According to a Pentagon spokesman, the Air Force offered the Jewish officer’s family the privilege of having a military funeral and a gravesite for him in Arlington but his wife, Mrs. Deborah Brudno, and his parents, Dr. and Mrs. James Brudno, preferred civil rites in keeping with his Jewish faith, and services will therefore be conducted Friday in Beth El Synagogue in Quincy.
Capt. Brudno, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for 89 months after he was shot down on Oct. 18, 1965, had his Bar Mitzvah in Beth El. He was 33 at the time of his death. Air Force Capt. Michael Burch, a spokesman for the Air Force at the Pentagon, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Capt. Brudno was “well liked” by his Air Force colleagues who had “high respect” for him. Some of Capt. Brudno’s friends in the Air Force, he added, may serve as pallbearers.
Burch said that the Pentagon conducted an investigation of Brudno’s death but this was “routine” since the Pentagon is required to investigate the death of any serviceman. Burch said the Pentagon would accept the verdict of the County Coroner.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
