Unclaimed veterans receive final honor
Motorcyclists escort remains to cemetery
A group of 40 motorcyclists rumbled out of Columbia Park on Friday to give 22 veterans a long-awaited escort to their burial site.
The remains – some from as far back as World War I – have been unclaimed all these years.
“They will be given the honors that they are due,” said Neal “Stretch” Miller, Southeastern Washington district captain for the Patriot Guard Riders. “And it gives their brothers and sisters in arms behind me, these veterans, an opportunity to pay a final tribute, to give them a ride home for a final resting place.”
John Hundahl of Kennewick, the area representative for the Missing in America Project, has been working on collecting the remains for the past year. He took the remains of seven veterans from Benton County in March to the state veterans cemetery in Medical Lake, but this time he had help from a larger group.
He has collected more remains since then from area coroners and funeral homes. About 50 veterans from across the state, including 36 that Hundahl located in the Tri-Cities and Wenatchee, will be buried with full military honors Sept. 15 in Medical Lake.
“They will go from being on a funeral home’s shelf in the basement to an honorable place, letting everybody know that they served our country,” Hundahl said.
The motorcyclists were expected to be joined by other riders from the Patriot Guard’s Northeastern Washington division when they reached Ritzville and then make the last part of the trip together, Hundahl said.
Army Sgt. Charles Webster Booth had the longest wait to be interred. The World War I veteran died in 1978 at 84.
The majority of those being taken to Medical Lake are World War II veterans, with a few having served in World War I, Korea and Vietnam.
Hundahl started the process of looking for unclaimed veterans remains by calling area coroners and funeral homes. He then checked the names of the people he was able to find with the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to see if they were in the military. Veterans are entitled to a free military burial.
The Missing in America Project has interred nearly 2,500 veterans nationwide, according to its website.