WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — For decades, the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office has been home to the remains of those who went unclaimed.
Whether a family could not afford to take on the financial responsibility, or if all efforts of tracking down relatives were exhausted, 57 cremains sat in boxes in an evidence room inside the coroners office.
”I have to say I was surprised, and definitely feel it’s a disgrace to all our veterans who served, and that to be in a room, in a box, on the floor,” Coroner Tim Carson said.
With help from the nonprofit Missing in America Project, it was discovered that 15 of those unclaimed cremains are United States veterans.
”Which (their) sole purpose is to locate, identify and inter the unclaimed remains of American veterans,” Carson said of the project.
Some of the remains date back to 1993, and are from veterans of the Vietnam and Korean Wars, including two brothers who served in World War II.
Carson said they are heroes whose remains will be kept in engraved marble urns donated by the Missing in America Project.
Those unclaimed veterans will be laid to rest at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies with full military honors.”… 21-gun salute, taps, full military funeral … and that’s where their final resting place will be,” Carson said.
As for the other 42 unclaimed cremains, the coroner’s office is hoping they can build a mausoleum at the paupers’ cemetery in Hempfield Township through volunteer work and donations.
”I think it’s very important, and I know how the people of Westmoreland County are, and they take care of their veterans and I think this will be good closure,” Carson said.
The memorial service for the unclaimed veterans will be held July 15, starting at the Scottdale War Memorial, and then will be escorted to the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies.
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