{"id":84430,"date":"2019-01-22T09:02:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T13:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=84430"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:32:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:32:30","slug":"unclaimed-veterans-buried-with-honor-and-dignity-thanks-to-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84430","title":{"rendered":"Unclaimed Veterans Buried with Honor and Dignity, Thanks to Strangers\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2019\/01\/21\/unclaimed-veterans-buried-honor-and-dignity-thanks-strangers.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/unclaimed_veterans_buried_with_dignity_thanks_to_strangers.png.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A national effort is underway to pay final respect to members of the military whose bodies were not claimed by relatives.<\/p>\n<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. &#8212; When the flags were removed from the caskets and folded with military precision, there were no family members there to receive them.<\/p>\n<p>So the banners were passed, hand-to-hand, through the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Some mourners wept as they clutched the flags briefly. Others kissed them. But the three veterans laid to rest on a rainy Memphis morning were strangers to most of those who gathered to honor their memory.<\/p>\n<p>The service was part of a national effort by funeral homes, medical examiners, state and federal veterans&#8217; affairs departments, and local veterans&#8217; groups to pay final respects to members of the military whose bodies were not claimed by any relatives. Since 2000, Dignity Memorial and other funeral homes in more than 30 cities have organized about 3,000 funerals for soldiers, sailors and\u00a0Marines\u00a0who died alone, but still deserved a dignified funeral and burial, said Jeff Berry, Dignity&#8217;s general manager in Knoxville.<\/p>\n<p>Army\u00a0soldiers Arnold M. Klechka, 71, and Wesley Russell, 76, and Marine Charles B. Fox, 60, were laid to rest in a service attended by about 700 people at West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Memphis on Thursday. There was a gun salute, and a bagpiper played &#8220;Amazing Grace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But none of them had family members present.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I had no idea this was happening as often as it is.\u00a0 If you know about a local group that participates in this, please forward their information to me.\u00a0 \u00a0We need to help support and organize this effort nationally.<\/p>\n<p>No veteran should go to his grave,\u00a0 unwept, unhonored, and unsung.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2019\/01\/21\/unclaimed-veterans-buried-honor-and-dignity-thanks-strangers.html\">Unclaimed Veterans Buried with Honor and Dignity, Thanks to Strangers | Military.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A national effort is underway to pay final respect to members of the military whose bodies &hellip; <a title=\"Unclaimed Veterans Buried with Honor and Dignity, Thanks to Strangers\u00a0\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84430\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Unclaimed Veterans Buried with Honor and Dignity, Thanks to Strangers\u00a0<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":84431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,84,86,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historical","category-military-issues","category-veteran-health-care","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}