Eight forgotten Panhandle veterans honored, to be laid to rest at national cemetery

AMARILLO - Veterans and friends and family from across the Panhandle gathered Wednesday at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial Center to pay respects to eight veterans en route to their final resting place at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.

These forgotten soldiers who had their remains unclaimed were identified as veterans by the Missing in America Project, in a rigorous effort to give proper military burial honors to those who served.

Launched nationwide in 2007, the Missing in America Project is a nonprofit foundation that strives to locate, identify and lay to rest the unclaimed remains of American veterans. Since the project came to the Panhandle, 50 veterans have been recognized and laid to rest with the cooperation of local municipalities

Each year, MIAP in concert with entities throughout the nation, investigates unclaimed cremated remains to determine if any are veterans with the help of volunteers of the organization in a mission to give proper honors to those who served.

Joel Carver, the Panhandle representative who oversees the recovery of unclaimed veterans in the area, spoke about his role and the process of MIAP.

He said that he and other volunteers contact funeral homes, cemeteries and various municipalities to inquire about unclaimed remains, researching the named individuals to determine if they are veterans. According to Carver, only about 10% of the unclaimed remains are veterans. His group runs all the information that they have through a database one by one to determine veteran status and, if a veteran, to determine if their service was honorable.

“People don’t think, and I did not for many years, know that there were unclaimed veterans among us,” Carver said. “If we dig a little deep, if we do the research, we will find that there are several of them, unfortunately.”

Carver said that during his time with the organization, he had come across one veteran’s remains that had been in storage in Moore County for a decade. After doing intensive research, he found that the remains were of a veteran born in 1925 who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Once remains have been identified as veterans with honorable service, MIAP works with national cemeteries to find a place to lay their ashes to rest.

Carver said his organization is seeking volunteers willing to help or donate to the project, and information can be found at https://www.miap.us/ .

Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner spoke at Wednesday's event about the importance of identifying and honoring these veterans, as well as her involvement in the program.

Tanner said she became involved with the project in 2016, when Carver contacted her about identifying veterans among the unclaimed cremated remains in Potter County. She said that it took a while to identify individuals, but they found eight veterans in the first year and have found 48 in total since 2016.

“I cannot think of anything sadder than these veterans who died homeless and forgotten in a vault with nobody to claim them after fighting for our country,” Tanner said. “We do this for the veterans every year, and we will continue to do so until we have no more veterans unclaimed. This is our duty to honor their service.”

Tanner said her county was one of the first in the area to work with the project and had inspired other counties to follow suit with their success. She said 71 counties in the state are currently working with the program.

“This is a good thing; this is an American thing and makes me feel really proud to be a small part of helping to honor these veterans,” Tanner added. “I am so glad that we get to do this for these great Americans.”

The veterans were to be escorted by the Patriot Guard and the Texas Department of Public Service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio for a military internment at 1 p.m. Friday. The eight veterans who are being transported to the national cemetery are:

• -David Alexander – Navy Vietnam veteran

• -Melvin G. Atkinson – Army Vietnam veteran

• Daniel La France – Army Vietnam veteran

• Roger Long – Army Vietnam veteran

• -Samuel Marez – Army Vietnam veteran

• -William C. Miller – Army Vietnam veteran

• -Buster Shufelt – Army Vietnam veteran

• -Mark Rosta – Air Force veteran

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: 8 forgotten Panhandle veterans honored, to be laid to rest