WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Forgotten Veterans Finally Honored
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Randolph Center, Vermont - November 7, 2008
Thousands of Americans who served in the nation's wars have gone missing in action over the years and remain unaccounted for to this day. But you may not realize that possibly hundreds more are missing -- not on some foreign battlefield, but right here in America.
Col. Joseph Krawczyk (Ret.), who chairs the Governor's Veterans' Affairs Council, welcomed a crowd of veterans and their families to the Vermont Veterans Cemetery. "Thank you all for coming here today to honor the lives of four great Americans and Vermonters," he said.
This was an unusual military burial. More than likely it was not the last. Bruce Turner heads the Missing in America Project in Vermont. He says on a hunch he called a local funeral home and discovered the unclaimed cremated remains of the four Vermonters. Their urns had been there for decades, literally on the shelf.
"Our devotion must be continuous," Krawczyk said, "from the day they enter military service past the day that they die."
Three men and one woman from the Army, Navy and Air Force, among them veterans of World Wars I and II, and the Korean War, came home -- but died without a proper burial. No family members ever came forward.
The four were identified as Army Private Ralph G. Hemphill, Second Lieutenant Doris A. Ferriter, Navy Yeoman second class Julius J. Morse and Master Sergeant Samuel Mazur. Only Mazur has a known hometown -- Tunbridge.
Four veterans' motorcycle groups, including the American Legion Riders, joined an honor guard of currently-serving Vermonters -- from the Army and Air Guard and the Naval Reserve -- for a burial with military honors.
Traditionally, an American flag is presented to each family. With no family present, the four flags will be kept at the Vermont Veterans cemetery. Among those attending were several Gold Star families who lost their loved ones in the Iraq War.
Marion Gray, a Vermont Gold Star Mother, told the crowd, "I don't know where their families are, but today we are their family."
A three-shot rifle volley and taps complete the ceremony.
Bruce Turner, the state Missing in America Project coordinator, said, "These veterans deserve the final honors. You know, they sign a blank check when they join the service, and this is their final."
Surviving veterans say more unrecognized war veterans will be found -- in fact many already have been found all over the country, including seven in neighboring New Hampshire. They will be honored, as these now have been.
Andy Potter - WCAX News
