ROSS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The stays of seven mid-Michigan veterans who didn’t have members of the family to rearrange their burials had been laid to relaxation by their fellow service members in Fort Custer Nationwide Cemetery Friday morning.
Their lives had been honored with prayer and navy honors. Fellow veterans, lively responsibility service members, police and fireplace crews paid their respects as every urn was delivered to the ceremony close to Augusta.
“I know that we are absolutely doing the right thing. We wait and do this once a year. We want to make sure that we lay everybody to rest at the same time because we’d like to do a large ceremony we want to give them everything that they deserve,” mentioned Michelle Fox, chief investigator on the workplace of the medical expert via the College of Michigan Well being-Sparrow in Lansing.
She mentioned the responsibility of caring for these veterans, known as ‘unaccompanied,’ begins from the second of demise. First, employees memners work diligently to seek out surviving members of the family. If nobody may be discovered or the subsequent of kin can not care for remaining preparations, the workplace works with funeral properties and the Division of Protection. When an individual is are discovered to be eligible to be interred on the nationwide cemetery, cremated stays are held till the annual ceremony for such veterans, which is a long-standing custom organized by the medical expert’s workplace and Fort Custer Cemetery employees.
“It’s just a wonderful gift to be able to give them. They serve our country, they give us the freedoms that we have, and to be able to give back to that and give back to them and to be able to lay them to rest in a place with their brothers and sisters,” Fox mentioned.
The unaccompanied veterans honored Friday included:
Petty Officer third Class James Morris, U.S Navy, from Lansing
Cpl. Jerry Robinson, U.S. Marine Corps, from Lansing
Sgt. Frank Bursik, U.S. Air Power, from Owosso Township
Sgt. Lana Schaeffer, U.S. Air Power, from East Lansing
Pfc. Kenneth Blake, U.S. Military, from Lansing
Pfc. Sherry Shawley, U.S. Military, from Meridian Township
Spc. Douglas Bruce Harris, U.S. Military
Seven unaccompanied mid-Michigan veterans are honored at Fort Custer Nationwide Cemetery close to Augusta on Nov. 8, 2024.
Seven unaccompanied mid-Michigan veterans are honored at Fort Custer Nationwide Cemetery close to Augusta on Nov. 8, 2024.
Seven unaccompanied mid-Michigan veterans are honored at Fort Custer Nationwide Cemetery close to Augusta on Nov. 8, 2024.
After 40 years within the Air Power and Air Nationwide Guard, retired Col. Frank Walker is aware of the bond of household created by service.
“These seven veterans that we inter today are part of our family, and we don’t let the family leave this world without being recognized and let them know the love that we had for them when they were with us on this earthly world,” Walker mentioned.
Walker mentioned service would not finish after retirement. For him, service now focuses on caring for veterans and exhibiting appreciation.
“(For) their Gold Star families, every day is Memorial Day, so we might celebrate veteran’s day on 11 November, but in my world, every single day is veteran’s day,” he mentioned.
