FALLEN COMRADES

NORTH BAY, Calif., (Jan. 27, 2014) -- It was the largest number of veterans given a service together at one time in a National Cemetery in California history.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery (SVNC), in Dixon, Calif., May 20, including Fairfield Recruiting Center Commander Sgt. 1st Class Shawnae Walker, Staff Sgt. Alexander Perez, Staff Sgt. Joshua Hughes, Staff Sgt. Randy Powell and Sgt. Eric Saint--Erne.

It was a warm day with a light breeze, perfect weather for honoring 35 veterans found by the Missing in America Project (MIAP). All 35 remains were misplaced, lost, forgotten or unclaimed due to no surviving family or records being lost. The comrades never received military honors and respect was never paid. The oldest of these cremains waited in storage for more than 50 years. For these 35 fallen comrades, the wait is over.

The MIAP's stated purpose is "to locate, identify and inter the unclaimed cremated remains of American veterans through the joint efforts of private, state and federal organizations. To provide honor and respect to those who have served this country by securing a final resting place for these forgotten heroes."

The project provides coordination between a large number of government agencies, volunteer groups and private mortuary services to accomplish this goal. The groups act like a joint task-force commander who ensures mission accomplishment among different organizations. These 35 remains bring the total number of veterans found and interred to-date as 1,491.

The project continues to identify more veterans in need of interment through its ongoing searches. Their efforts are far from complete.

The service started with a short ceremony at Santa Rosa Memorial Park in Californiz. The services were provided by the mortuary at no cost.

The mortuary received the cremains from the county morgue storage, prepared them for internment, and provided the hearse used to transport the remains to Dixon.

A motorcycle escort -- 130 strong -- accompanied the hearse at front and rear. The California Highway Patrol motorcycle units worked ahead of the escort to close off ramps for the procession. As the procession arrived at SVNC, the Capitol Region Patriot Guard Riders provided a flag line on each side of the road into the cemetery for the funeral procession to drive through. Bagpiper Chuck Jamison from the Scottish-American Military Society played the procession onto the grounds of the cemetery.

The flag line redeployed to the ceremony ground forming a half circle matching the contour of the grass around the presenters' platform. Travis Air Force Base Honor Guard took up station flanking each side of the path between the hearse and the grounds. The California State Honor Guard, Team 8 (Army National Guard) took up position to the far right of the staging area ready to fire the traditional 3-volley salute and play "Taps." The American Soldier Freedom Riders -- providing an air of solemnity that only well-trained horses can provide -- took up another position flanking the procession. Representatives of all the Armed Forces, both active and retired and displaying more veteran organization affiliations than could be counted, lined the route to the ceremony grounds.

Jamison, joined by two flag bearers, turned to face the rear of the hearse and played "Going Home" as the mortuary attendants transferred the cremains from hearse to honor guard. Senior Honor Guard Coordinator Sgt. Grant Noah received each cremain urn. He had pre-selected 35 pallbearers -- all veterans representing the Armed Forces branches and veterans organizations -- to carry the cremains to the ceremony grounds. Each pallbearer saluted the fallen before accepting the cremains from Noah to carry to the ceremony platform. Each urn draped with its own urn-sized American flag.

California Army National Guard Chaplain Capt. Guy Gifford spoke, followed by a musical tribute sang by American Legion Auxiliary Post 637 Chaplain Tina Minasian. Gifford continued with an explanation of the rendered military honors.

The names of the 35 comrades were read, and a bell was rung after each name. Team 8 proceeded to render the honors described by Gifford. Volleys were fired, "Taps" was played and two flags were folded. As the folding of the flags commenced, the familiar strains of "Amazing Grace" came forth from Jamison's bagpipes, a traditional Scottish military funeral tribute. Since there were no next of kin to receive the flags, Sonoma County Veterans' Affairs Officer Lt. Col. Chris Bingham and Sonoma County Sheriff-Coroner officer Greg Stashyn were chosen to stand in for the next of kin and each were presented a flag. Gifford closed with a prayer, "Oh, Lord, Grant eternal rest unto our fallen brethren and sisterens, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls, rest in peace."

SIDE BAR COMMENTARY

Will your funeral be as grand?

The service was beautiful -- full of pageantry, ritual, pomp and circumstance. A couple of hundred people stood there to honor these veterans. Each was a complete stranger to the fallen. Not one person present knew any of those being honored, no family, no friends, no battle buddies.

Why should it be so important to attend the funeral of strangers? The most common response was, "We owe it to them." Indeed we do.

Yet, these were not war-time deaths. There is no mandate requiring honors be rendered. National Cemeteries did not even exist until the Civil War. Large numbers of veterans are interred by their families without military honors being rendered. Such honors are requested by the family, they are not ­automatic.

With no family to request military honors, no one to remember the uniqueness of the individual and no mandate requiring the performance, why should it matter so much?

A plaque at the cemetery reminds us that President Abraham Lincoln at the 1863 dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery gave us a definitive answer: "... It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The pageantry and the magnificence are not just for the fallen. It is not just to remember the past. It is not just to comfort the grieving. It is for us the living as well, to remind us that the fight never ends. That it is our task to ensure the future will know why these few sacrificed for them.

Their task is done. They have heard "Taps' send them to their final, eternal rest. Our task has just begun. For we do owe them, not just to remember and give them their honors due, but to take up their standard and push ever onward; To "insure the blessings of liberty for … posterity" and to see to it that the Armed Forces of the United States will ever be ready to defend our country against all tyranny in whatever form it may arise. This is what we owe them -- that their devotion shall not have been in vain.