Forgotten veterans' remains recovered

LAID TO REST:
Lieutenant Commander Jim Gibson of the U.S. Navy (Ret.) carries an urn to its final resting place at Northern California Veterans Cemetery.

Urns containing the ashes of cremated veterans are stacking up, unclaimed, in funeral homes and state hospitals across the nation, according to Missing In America Project (MIAP) founder and executive director Fred Salanti.

The urns are adding up at funeral homes for a variety of reasons, Salanti said, including the death of the spouse/caretaker, an old phone number or perhaps the emotional burden of interring the cremains was too great. Either way, urns are left with funeral homes until somebody retrieves them.

“Sometimes it’s us,” Salanti said.

MIAP determines the veteran status of various cremains with research. Salanti tracks names for involvement in the armed forces by delving into barracks records, background checks and newspaper obituaries.

Salanti has found that 33 percent of unclaimed cremains in funeral homes are those of veterans. MIAP has thus far discovered 500 veterans’ cremains and have interred 200 with military honors.

A total of 26 veterans were given a military burial last Monday at the Northern California Veterans Cemetery that otherwise would still be left on a shelf. About 100 people were on-hand for the memorial service, Salanti said.

The MIAP, having begun by Salanti in Redding, has branched out to 44 other states to recover forgotten cremains nationwide. The organization has covered 460 funeral homes and has 45,000 to go.

“We also have to change state laws to get information from funeral homes and release them from liability,” Salanti said. “It’s taken a long time to prove that we’re for real, reliable and respected. I’m bonded and insured for liability.”

The question of liability arises due to privacy issues surrounding the information that the agency must sift through to find veterans.

“The liability/privacy issues are not about the deceased but in fact on any other information that will be provided to MIAP volunteers,” Salanti said. “They will have access to other information in a file that is not about the deceased and is to protect the other family members.”

“We didn’t have any issue working with MIAP,” crematory manager of Allen and Dahl Funeral Chapel Bill Fisher said. “They performed a valuable service.”

The MIAP also wants official recognition from the Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Congress in order to receive cooperation from state agencies, funeral homes and crematoriums.