Joseph Ambrose, then an 86-year-old veteran of the First World War, attends the Dedication Day parade for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC on November 13, 1982. He is carrying the flag that covered the casket of his son who was killed in the Korean War.

Born on May 24, 1896 in Joliet, Illinois to Austrian immigrant parents, he was drafted into the Army in 1917 and served two years in the 140th Infantry. After the war he married a Croatian immigrant from Austria-Hungary named Marie and had four sons. The third one, Clement, died in 1951 while serving as a sergeant in the Korean War.

Joseph himself passed away on May 1, 1988.

Source: Defense Audiovisual Agency, a division of the DoD that ran from 1979-1985