Thanks in large part to the Missing in America Project, Silver Star Medal recipient and Vietnam-era war veteran James William Dunn of Cottonwood will reach his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on May 29.
Dunn, who died May 19, 2008, served 35 years as a combat medic in the U.S. Army, from June 29, 1954, to Sept. 30, 1975.
According to military records, "(D)uring the early-morning hours of March 27, 1969, while serving as a medical aide with the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, at Fire Support Base Jack in the Republic of Vietnam, Dunn left a bunker where he had just finished treating an injured man and, unprotected from intense hostile fire, went to the aid of another man seriously wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade."
Dunn treated the wounded soldier while under fire, then carried the man to a nearby bunker where he continued medical treatment for many hours, treating numerous wounded personnel who would have died without his skill, the military records continue.
For his bravery under enemy fire and other selfless acts of service and heroism, Dunn received the Silver Star Medal as well as the Bronze Star Medal, an Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service medal and the Vietnam Campaign ribbon.
He also received the coveted Brave Eagle Coin from Melvin Zais, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division.
When Dunn retired from military service, he became a foster parent, directly impacting the lives of 261 children. At one point, Dunn was taking simultaneous care of 11 foster children.
Accompanying Dunn's cremated remains are the cremains of former U.S. Navy seaman Johnnie Franklin Callahan of Sacramento, also a Silver Star Medal recipient, and Isaiah Mays, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who's lonely and virtually unmarked pauper's grave was found in a vacant field adjoining an isolated parking area behind the Arizona State Hospital near Phoenix.
Sadly, thousands of America's forgotten heroes - some estimate as many as 15,000 of the hundreds of thousands of unclaimed cremains stored at funeral homes across the United States - belong to this nation's war veterans who each deserve a respectful resting place, said Fred Salanti of Redding, who launched the non-profit Missing in America Project in November of 2006.
Since then, the movement to locate, identify and inter the unclaimed cremains of veterans has spread across the nation.
On May 20, a group of 30 to 50 motorcycle riders accompanied by a few support vans, personal automobiles and at least one motorhome - owned by Linda Hartman, who represents District 4 on the Shasta County Board of Supervisors - will leave the Sacramento on a 2,923-mile funeral route.
Thousands more motorcyclists, many from such groups as the Patriot Guards and the Old Guard Riders, are expected to join the procession as it wends its way across the country, stopping overnight to place the crated funeral urns in a mortuary or funeral home, said Salanti, MIAP's national executive director.
The three identical bronze urns, each weighing nearly 26 pounds, were donated by the Christy Vault Company, Inc., 1000 Collins Ave., in Colma, Calif.
"By the time we reach Arlington National Cemetery, I expect our motorcade procession will be more than eight miles ling with several thousand riders," said Salanti, who has difficulty holding back tears as he recounts the origins of the Missing in America Project.
"Our intent in all of this is to get some national media attention for the Missing in America Project," Salanti said.
While living in Grants Pass, Ore., Salanti became aware in June 2006 that the federal Eagle Point National Cemetery held a service at least once each month for a veteran who had died without any living family member as a witness.
"Usually, the service was attended only by a chaplain and a funeral home director," he said, choking back the tears.
There were no military honor guards, no one to play taps, no flag bearers and no flowers for these men and women. And most were provided only the smallest of grave markers due to the high costs associated.
"Once I started looking for unclaimed cremains, I came down to Allen & Dahl's funeral chapel in Redding and met with owner Jim Allen, who really got the ball rolling" in terms of identifying unclaimed cremains.
During the last three years, MIAP volunteers have visited a total of 648 funeral homes, found 6,642 unclaimed cremains (3,500 at one state institution alone), identified 571 cremains as belonging to U.S. Veterans, and interred 387 of those so identified, according to the organization's Web site, www.miap.us
"We establish our credentials and make the funeral director comfortable that we're there only to honor the veterans that we find," Salanti said.
To help pay the nearly $50,000 in expenses to locate, research, disinter, move and re-inter the remains of these three veterans this Memorial Day week, Salanti received financial assistance from literally hundreds of North State individuals, businesses, organizations and institutions.
"I think it is totally commendable for the North State to support this effort in the way they did," Salanti said during a nearly two-hour ceremony to fold 14 flags that will accompany the three urns across the country.
Fittingly, the ceremony was held at the Allen & Dahl funeral chapel in Palo Cedro, where Salanti's own personal journey began.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 1
Marv writes:
I was wondering if anyone knows if Jim Dunn was the same person that graduated from Shasta Union High School in 1950, and had a brother named Art whom was a Highway Patrol Officer that was killed on duty?
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