The remains of 16 American veterans and two of their spouses were laid to rest
in a ceremony Thursday that began in Freehold and ended in Wrightstown.
Some of the
remains have been sitting on shelves for decades. Thursday's event was all because of the efforts
of the Vietnam Veterans of America.
The ceremony began
at the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, as each of the 18 remains was
recognized and honored with a full military salute. The cremated remains were forgotten for a number of reasons -- in some cases, the last
surviving family members died and urns ended up at the funeral homes.
"These veterans
are left all by themselves,” says Ernie Diorio, of Vietnam Veterans
of America Chapter 12. “Nobody's picked them up.
We decided to pick them up and do the right thing with them, because let's face
it these guys fought for our country. Why should they be left by
themselves sitting on a shelf for all these years? It's not fair, so we bring
them back to General Doyle and they're with their comrades.”
The Vietnam
Veterans of America takes possession of the urns, verifies the
remains are of a veteran, tries to contact any surviving family members
and then presents a full military burial.
“They essentially have become missing in
action,” says David Drummond, former Vietnam POW, VVA 233. “We are trying to make sure that all of our comrades are
accounted for and given a proper burial and they fall under the missing in
action category as far as I'm concerned.”
In one instance,
the remains sat on a shelf for 50 years before the organization
gave them a proper burial.
The procession
will make several stops along the way through Freehold, before ending at the Brigadier General William C.
Doyle Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown later this afternoon.
The Jersey Shore
chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America have laid to rest more than 100
cremated remains in the years since these efforts began.