The remains of six Montana veterans will go to their final resting place next month, in the state veterans cemetery at Fort Harrison. Steve Jess reports that it’s part of a nationwide effort to find the unclaimed ashes of service members, and give them the burial they deserve.
On June fifth, a motorcycle procession will escort the remains of six Montana veterans from a Great Falls funeral home to the state veterans cemetery outside Helena, where they will be interred with full military honors. These ashes have been waiting as long as eighteen years for a permanent burial spot. Marty Malone, state coordinator for the Missing in America Project, says veterans’ remains can go unburied for many reasons.
“There’s been a number of instances where a son thought his stepmom had done it," said Malone. "A sister thought a brother had done it, others have been left by a surviving spouse. They’ll sometimes hang on to the remains of say a husband, in waiting for the wife’s passing, to combine them, but it could be twenty, thirty years. Maybe she got remarried and they made additional plans elsewhere. And then unfortunately some of them are intentionally left there."
Malone’s group works with funeral homes around the country to find unclaimed remains of veterans, and always tries to track down family members before making burial plans.
“We started off with nine eligible veterans," he said. "We were able to locate families of three of them. We’ll be turning those over to their loved ones.”
Among those being interred next months is a career air force veteran who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
