A Green Beret remembered

Gripping a shovel with both hands, Deborah Gitell followed her brother’s lead Wednesday and tossed a clump of dirt on her father’s pine coffin after it was lowered into his grave. She uttered, “Bye Dad,” as if Vietnam War veteran Gerry Gitell could hear her. And if he could have listened, he also would have heard nephews Noah and Zachary Katz, sister Sandra Katz, son Seth Gitell and the rest of his family sing the song he helped popularize, “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”