Connecticut veterans’ unclaimed cremains to be buried with honors

Hartford Courant - 9/28/2021

Remains of eight veterans who were forgotten or abandoned in Connecticut funeral homes are to be buried with full military honors on Friday.

The public is invited to the ceremony honoring the World War I, World War II, Korean and Vietnam War veterans at 10:30 a.m., rain or shine, at the State Veterans Cemetery, 317 Bow Lane, Middletown.

The veterans’ cremated remains sat on funeral home shelves, some since the 1970s, unclaimed by any family members. Funeral directors are not bound to keep ashes after trying to find someone to take possession, but many do anyway.

In 2008, then-state veterans Commissioner Linda Schwartz joined the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association and the state chapter of the Missing in America Project to identify veterans’ remains. At the time, the Missing in America Project had helped locate, identify and inter the ashes of more than 100 veterans nationwide.

Ceremonial burials for the remains of such honorably discharged veterans started in Connecticut in 2009. The ceremony was canceled last year due to the COVID-10 pandemic. In 2019, the remains of four veterans — one from the Spanish American War, one from World War I and two from World War II — were buried.

The veterans to be interred Friday are:

Four hearses carrying the veterans’ remains are to leave the DVA’s Rocky Hill campus at 9:40 a.m., escorted by police and Connecticut Patriot Guard Riders. At the cemetery, state Veterans Affairs Commissioner Thomas J. Saadi is to lead the ceremony, supported by funeral home directors from across the state. The ceremony also is to include posthumous presentation of Connecticut Wartime Service Medals. Masks are strongly encouraged.

Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com.