Utah's unclaimed veterans to get military funeral

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They served their country. But when they died decades later in Utah, no one came to get them.

Instead, their cremated remains rested among other unclaimed urns in a Salt Lake City funeral home closet.

On Monday, the ashes of 15 unclaimed veterans will be given military burials in a ceremony at the Utah Veterans Memorial Park, the first such funeral in Utah organized by the Missing in America Project.

The 14 men and one woman who served in the 1950s, '60s and '70s died here and were cremated under Salt Lake County's legal authority when no one could be found to claim them. The remains have been stored at Deseret Mortuary, which helped volunteers research the identities of uncollected remains for evidence of military service.

Roger Graves and his wife, Crystal Graves, headed up the effort after moving to Cedar City from Redding, Calif., where Missing in America Project founder Fred Salanti, a retired Army major, now lives.

"We want to make sure these guys get their honors," said Roger Graves, who comes from a military family but did not serve himself. "It's a moral obligation. They took the oath to protect this country here and abroad."

Since 2006, the Missing in America Project has arranged funerals for more than 1,000 unclaimed veterans across the country after volunteers searched genealogy and military records to bridge the gap between funeral homes, local authorities and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In April, the Graveses set up a Missing in America Project vendor booth at the Utah Funeral Directors Association conference in Salt Lake City, said Connor Griffith of Deseret Mortuary, who is arranging Monday's funeral.

"I feel very honored. This has been a nice experience to have," said Griffith. "I'm glad this group has come forward to do this."

Desert Mortuary normally holds unclaimed cremated remains for a year, Griffith said, then buries them in a common grave in a mausoleum or underground vault. The mortuary buries 75 to 100 such urns each year.

The Missing in America Project volunteers "did a lot of legwork, sending back to Washington" for information, Griffith said. They also wrote letters to family members, and the mortuary sent the notes to addresses that turned up in research or ones the mortuary already had.

"We had some that didn't even have Social Security numbers on their death certificates," Graves said. "If a funeral home will contact us, we'll do the research."

Privacy requirements prohibit Griffith from disclosing which of the veterans to be buried Monday have family, he said.

Salanti started the volunteer effort after hearing about how the Idaho State Veterans cemetery interred 21 remains of forgotten veterans, with full military honors, in November 2006.

Missing in America volunteers make sure a flag accompanies each urn and that the funerals include traditional 21-gun salutes.

"The veterans languishing on shelves need us," Salanti says on the Missing in America Project website. "They need America to step forward and ensure they are buried with honor. They need America to show their thanks for their service. Without them, we would not have the freedoms we enjoy today."

That's a message that resonates with Herriman resident and Missing in America volunteer Michael Gallegos, whose father served with the Air Force in Germany. Gallegos rode with the Old Guard Riders motorcycle club three years ago when they accompanied the remains of three decorated veterans who had been buried in Sacramento, Calif., to Arlington National Cemetery for reburial.

"If they don't have any next of kin, we become the family and bury them," Gallegos said. "Uncle Sam pays for it. These guys fought for us. It's time for us to do something for them."

Gallegos also is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, who go to funerals at a family's request to shield them from protesters from the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church. The protesters disrupt military services, taunting mourners with alleged warnings of God's anger over homosexuality.

The Patriot Guard Riders will be in the funeral procession Monday, as will the POW/MIA Riders and the Rocky Mountain Green Knights Motorcycle Club from Hill Air Force Base.

Bruce Clements, of Holladay, also has become a Missing in America volunteer, working with the Graveses to inventory more unclaimed urns in the Salt Lake Valley. A former Army reservist, he scans online obituaries every day for veterans' funerals. He rides his motorcycle to every one he can, he said, carrying the proper branch-of-service flag with him. As of Tuesday, he had been to 97 funerals this year.

"It is something that is ingrained in my heart," Clements said, "and I am going to continue to do it as long as I am able."

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Veterans to be honored

Deseret Mortuary released the names of veterans who will be buried, along with service record information the Missing in America Project was able to determine:

John Arthur Foreman, (1935-2009), U.S. Army, 1954-1957

Marita Anne Haberland, (1951-2010), U.S. Air Force, 1969

Ronald Harold Hester, (1952-2009), U.S. Navy, 1970-1974

Horace Raymond Hunt Jr., (1938-2008), U.S. Army, 1958-1960

Charles Michael Karlsson, (1940-2010), U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1962–1965

John Robert Mooney, (1941-2009), U.S. Army, 1959-1962

Robert Lee Orchard, (1930-2009), U.S. Army, 1950-1953

Earl Day Owen, (1925-2009), U.S. Naval Reserve, 1943-1946

Stanley Benson Philoon, (1949-2010), U.S. Army, 1971-1974

Albert Franklin Pilon, (1936-2010), U.S. Air Force, 1954

Harlon James Plamp, (1931-2010), U.S. Army, 1950-1953

Billie Joe Porter, (1947-2009), U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1964-1965

Robert Moulton Southwick Jr., (1948-2010), U.S. Marine Corps, 1966-1969; U.S. Air Force, 1972-1979

Timothy Nolan Theriot aka Anthony N. Theriot, (1945-2009), U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1965

Ronald Lee Young, (1957-2010), U.S. Marine Corps, 1976-1980 —

Funeral for those Missing in America

Services will be conducted with full military honors for the following 15 veterans at 10 a.m., Monday, August 15, at Utah Veterans Memorial Park, 17111 S. Camp Williams Road in Riverton.

The procession will include members of several Utah motorcycle clubs flying American flags, and is scheduled to begin shortly after 9 a.m. at Deseret Mortuary, 36 E. 700 South, Salt Lake City. —