Final Honors for Forgotten Vets

As we get ready to honor those who served and died for this country on Memorial Day, the New Mexico Department of Veterans' Services will take care of some forgotten veterans: those who died with no known family to bury them.

Through its Forgotten Heroes Burial Program, the department -- in cooperation with the Veterans Affairs Department, the Santa Fe National Cemetery and New Mexico's 33 counties -- has stepped up to become the "family" of these servicemen ignored in death.

Ray Seva, spokesman for the veterans' services department, said it became aware of the issue this year after Thaddeus Lucero, the manager for Bernalillo County, informed them that no family member had stepped forward to claim the remains of 14 veterans despite repeated attempts by the county and its medical investigator office to locate relatives.

John Garcia, the secretary at veterans' services, said unclaimed remains of veterans are a national problem. "It's extremely disheartening to hear that there are thousands of unclaimed cremated remains of veterans nationwide," he said.

Seva told me that the 14 veterans will be buried with full military honors on June 4 at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. They are:

Charles Walker Curlee, Army

Patrick Faudi, Air Force, Korean War

Wesley D. Fontaine, Army

John Thomson, Marines

Carl N. Peterson, Navy, Korean War

Howard Fried, Army, WW II

Patrick Ford, Air Force

Donald K. James, Army, Vietnam War

Clovis Walker, Air Force

Lonny Douglas Greg, Navy, Vietnam War

Norman Stiver, Air Force, Vietnam War

Carleton Crouch, Air Force, Vietnam War

William Bailly, branch and date of service unknown

John Mercado, branch and date of service unknown

Garcia said, "All fallen veterans deserve to be treated with respect because they sacrificed to serve and protect our country. We are now pleased to be able to do this for those veterans who have been forgotten in the end."