Salute To Tun Cristin

At Issue: The untimely passing of Purple Heart recipient Tun Cristin Dela Cruz.

Our View: We join the Northern Marianas Community in saluting the dedicated services of a distinguished citizen.

It was just a week or so ago that we featured the late Tun Cristin Dela Cruz’s photo on the cover of this newspaper receiving the distinguished Purple Heart medal from the US Marine Corps.
Last weekend, we were saddened to learn of his untimely passing in the presence of his loved-ones at home on Capitol Hill.
Indeed, fate has its mysterious ways for each of us. In Tun Cristin’s case, he lived to see the day when the federal government finally recognized the participation of local Marine Scouts who stood in harm’s way flushing snipers from caves here and in the Northern Islands.
Tun Cristin also lived his twilight years just long enough to receive a well-earned Purple Heart from the US Marine Corps. Indeed, it’s a fate filled with sentimental episodes but most importantly, Tun Cristin lived to see justice done to his and comrades’ dedicated services immediately after World War II.
Indeed, most of his comrades have died in recent years. He now joins them in the heavens of joy fully wary that they helped, in blind faith, to ensure that freedom descends on these islands. It did. And we need not look further than the fortunes that we have attained because we are a free people.
Tun Cristin understands and appreciates the essence of freedom and the sacrifices he, fellow comrades and regular US Marines had to endure to ascertain that it becomes a living reality here. Perhaps, some of us have taken our freedoms for granted because we never had to endure its hardship or a direct role in it. We should be thankful for the sacrifices of our gallant men who gave their lives so that each of us could live and dwell in freedom today.
In this respect, we offer our most profound sense of condolences and sorrow to the family of the late Tun Cristin for the sacrifices that he’s endured in the name of freedom. We will remember you and Tun Cristin in our thoughts and prayers throughout the week. And for all that you have given Tun Cristin, Si Yuus Maase` and may you find everlasting freedom by His side. Si Yuus Maase`!