Missing veterans’ remains given final resting place

From Leavenworth Times: Missing veterans’ remains given final resting place
Fort Leavenworth, Kan. — The Fort Leavenworth community welcomed a new group of residents Tuesday.

While normally those new to the fort arrive from across the country and leave within a year or two, the journey for these 17 men and women has taken decades, and their relocation is permanent.

They were the latest burials at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery — sets of cremated remains that had for years sat on shelves in area funeral homes before Linda Smith, head of operations with the nationwide Missing in America Project, and the organization’s volunteers stepped in to research them and ensure they received proper burial.

“This wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for her,” Bill Owensby, director of the Veterans Affairs cemeteries in Kansas, said of Smith.

Escorted from Kansas City to Leavenworth by motorcycle riders from the American Legion and other organizations Tuesday morning, the remains represented 14 veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I and a rarely verified Civil War veteran.

That Civil War veteran, Pvt. George McCarthy, was actually Canadian, though Smith said in 1864 he joined the Union Army’s 2nd Regiment, Missouri Artillery Volunteers, taking the place of another solider and serving as a clerk until he was discharged in 1865. But little else is known about his life.

Since passing away in 1946 at the age of 102, McCarthy’s remains have been sitting in a large storage facility in Kansas City, identified but not claimed.

He is not alone. Smith said all of those interred during Tuesday’s ceremony were found as the result of a large list of unclaimed cremains provided by Dignity Memorial funeral homes. She said on that list were all of that company’s remains stored at a facility that also contained those stored by Kansas City-based D.W. Newcomer and Sons funeral homes. She said she first buried the remains of those veterans on Dignity’s list at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Mo., then started working on the remains in the Newcomer’s portion of the storage facility, which were buried Tuesday at the fort.

Over the years, Smith said the organization has helped verify and bury more than a thousand veterans — often starting with just a name and a check-marked box on the death certificate indicating the person’s status — their spouses and one child previously left unclaimed.

Tuesday’s ceremony was one that Smith said she and other MIAP volunteers had been working on for about a year. Usually, she said the lead-up to a ceremony like that one involves hours of research using both the information provided by the funeral home and resources from veterans’ groups, genealogy websites and county historical records.

“They actually become friends, by the time I get to this point where we bury them,” Smith said of the veterans.

The burial takes place 30 days after she said public notice is given of the service.
Smith said interring 17 sets of remains at the same time is rare but that there are more names on the Newcomer and Sons list that Smith said the group is still researching.

Smith admits it is a lot of work for an active nationwide volunteer base of about 300. Buts she said they have plenty of motivation.

“They’re veterans — that says it all, I think,” she said. “They should be honored, instead they sat in funeral homes. We want to get them out there, we want to read their names, their information.”

It’s an honor that retired Lt. Gen. Robert Arter said is important to bestow.

“We would not have been a country were it not for men like Pvt. McCarthy,” he said in remarks delivered during the ceremony.

All of the veterans buried Tuesday should be remembered for their service, Arter said. David Tollefson, captain of the 1st Cavalry of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War who received McCarthy’s remains, said to be able to participate in such a ceremony for a Civil War veteran was especially important to him.

“I’m here to honor my ancestors,” he said.

In the future, Smith said she hopes that MIAP will continue to make possible many similar ceremonies. She estimated that there are more than 100,000 sets of unclaimed veterans’ remains alone in the United States. Smith said the number of unclaimed remains is not the result of neglect on the part of the Veterans Administration — she said a lack of manpower and funding is a big factor. Another one, according to Owensby, is that family members sometimes, for different reasons, do not claim remains. For his part, he said the VA is committed to identifying and interring every single set of veteran cremains.

“We take that commitment very seriously,” he said.

Smith said MIAP will also continue to do their diligence to that end. Though she said she cannot personally travel to Kansas often to do the necessary research, Smith said she hopes MIAP’s work here will continue.

“I’m going to put a little bit more effort into Kansas because of the volunteers that can help out,” she said.

The Missing in America project’s website is located at www.miap.us.