When a veteran dies and there is no family to tend to the details, the cremated remains will sometimes stay in storage for years. They’re called Unclaimed Veterans. If the eventual burial takes place in a Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery, it’s called an Unattended Interment.

Sometimes these veterans are homeless; sometimes they’re in a care facility. Sometimes no one knows the whole truth unless VA paperwork is found in the veteran’s belongings.

I know of three situations in the past six months where veterans with no relatives were buried — yet hundreds and thousands showed up at their funerals. In

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