Karl Romanchuk's cremated remains sat in storage until Missing in America Project intervened.
Larry Kolvoord/AMERICAN-STATESMAN: Naval Reserve Honor Guard members Alma Cavazos and Roy Lamb fold a ceremonial flag during the burial of World War II veteran Karl Romanchuk on Wednesday at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen. Romanchuk died in 2002 and left no survivors to bury him.
Jan. 26, 2011 - The chaplain, a volunteer from the local American Legion, stood tall to give Karl Romanchuk his final salute as a cemetery worker gently placed his cremated remains inside the wall and screwed the faceplate closed.
No one at his funeral service on Wednesday knew Romanchuk. For nearly a decade, the World War II veteran's remains had sat unclaimed in a storage unit.
"Nobody should have to wait that long," Henry Diesi said Thursday at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery, a few miles from the gates of Fort Hood. "He earned this a long time ago."
The details of Romanchuk's life are mostly blurred by the past. He was born in New York at the height of the Roaring '20s. He served during World War II in the Merchant Marines, which ferried badly needed supplies to troops in Europe and the Pacific. He was 75 when he died at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Temple in 2002.
Last year, an acquaintance brought the situation to the attention of the Missing in America Project, a national organization that seeks to identify the remains of forgotten and abandoned veterans and give them a proper burial.
"They deserve to be with their fellow veterans," said Fred Salanti , the national executive director of the group. "If there is no family to claim them, they should at least be with the people who shared a foxhole with them, people who understand them." {continued}
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Veteran Gets a Proper Burial
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