Gold Star mom, 92, honored in East Naples for helping veterans, families

Fifty years ago this May, the lone son of Naples resident Carlynn “Polly” Crews was killed on a mountainside ambush in South Vietnam while trying to retrieve the corpses of fellow American soldiers.

U.S. Army Sgt. Robert L. Crews posthumously was awarded a Purple Heart and other citations for his heroism.

His mother has spent the last half-century trying to keep his memory alive.

She was honored Saturday for those efforts and others, not just on behalf of her son but for U.S. veterans and their families as well, and especially for her role in founding the Southwest Florida chapter of the American Gold Star Mothers a year ago.

In fact, at the ceremony honoring her Saturday at the Villa at Terracina Grand on Davis Boulevard in East Naples, Crews, who is 92, was described as just as much a hero as her son.

Gold Star mothers are those whose sons or daughters were killed or went missing in action while in the U.S. military service.

The honorary event was held to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Gold Star Mothers organization, as well as the 50th anniversary of Robert Crews’ death.

The Graduate Association of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point commended Crews for her efforts on behalf of veterans.

“The association is pleased to have this opportunity to recognize Mrs. Polly Crews for her sacrifice and selfless service to other Gold Star mothers,” said retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Dyer, in presenting her with the citation. “She is as much a hero as her son.”

Another retired general, Maj. Gen. James Lee Dozier, offered Crews a framed copy of a speech from the Congressional Record. The speech, given by U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., on March 15 honored Gold Star mothers and mentioned the Southwest Florida chapter “for all they do for our fallen heroes and our community.”

But it wasn’t only military generals who came to honor Crews and other Gold Star mothers — five of whom were present — Saturday.

Bikers from the Rolling Thunder organization participated in the event, which was billed as a Gold Star Mothers Tea.

“We always try to be there for Gold Star mothers,” said Ray Addison, a Marine veteran and president of the local Rolling Thunder chapter. “It’s quite an honor to be able to support them.”

Some Gold Star mothers are members of the Thunder, and the bikers ride annually to the Washington, D.C., wall that honors American service members who died in Vietnam.

Also attending the ceremony were family members, other military personnel and school friends of Robert Crews.

Wayne Jenkins, one of those friends, met Robert Crews in Naples when they were about 8 years old. Jenkins followed Crews to Vietnam by a few months, and the two buddies corresponded about getting together at some point during the war.

But it was not to be.

“I got a letter from my family saying he was killed in action,” Jenkins said. “He was such an outstanding kid.”

Crews’ death in Vietnam was described in a book, “Through My Eyes,” by Kenneth D. Pollard, a fellow soldier from Florida. The two met at a military camp in Vietnam and became fast friends.

“We were young men who had been torn from the things that we took for granted before we came to Vietnam,” Pollard wrote of Crews and himself. “We missed our life back home — our friends, and most importantly, our families.”

Polly Crews gave Pollard’s books as gifts to several of the speakers Saturday, including the two generals, to perpetuate her son’s memory.

That, after all, has been her mission for the past 50 years.