The unclaimed cremated remains of 26 veterans and two of their spouses were given a final salute and buried with full military honors during a ceremony this week at the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Hundreds attended the memorial, reported KJCT. Among them was Vietnam Veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Larry Hicks.
"We serve together. We may not like each other, we may not like their politics or their religion or whatever, but by God, they served our country just like we are, so we recognize that" said Hicks.
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The vets who were interred served in both world wars, Korea and Vietnam. They were buried with the assistance of the Missing in America Project, which seeks to locate, identify and bury the cremated remains of veterans who have not been claimed by their families.
“The mission is to inter vets who have been misplaced for some reason,” said Mike Shults, a volunteer with MIAP. “We give them an honorable burial.”