'Once a veteran. Always a veteran.' Eight unclaimed dead laid to rest in Bucks County cemetery
Editor's Note: This news organization has been telling the stories of unclaimed dead and their impact on the community since 2019. As of this publication, the cremated remains of 68 have found final resting places. But hundreds more remain unclaimed in Bucks and Montgomery counties. Our original "Unclaimed" stories can be accessed here and includes updated names, stories and statuses of the unclaimed dead in Bucks and Montgomery counties.
Louis Filosi, Larry Hopkins and John Nace likely didn’t know each other, despite sharing common life threads.
They each served in the U.S. military. Filosi and Hopkins in the Navy and Nace in the U.S. Army. They were all Bucks County residents spending their final years living independently.
The three men also were almost forgotten after they died in 2018.
For the last four years their cremated remains have been stored with more than 200 other unclaimed and abandoned dead dating back to 1999 at the Bucks County Coroner’s Office in Warminster.
It was not until this year that it was discovered they were U.S. military veterans who were qualified for free burials with full military honors in a veterans cemetery.
They were the longest dead among the eight veterans from Bucks and Montgomery counties honored Thursday at the monthly unclaimed veterans memorial service held at the Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Upper Makefield. The other men died within the last six months.
Roughly two dozen strangers including military veterans and cemetery volunteers attended the ceremony, which was highlighted with a three volley rifle salute and a bugle playing Taps.
U.S. Navy retired Commander Peter Gregory spoke at the brief service about the integrity and resilience that binds veterans in service and beyond.
“Once a veteran, always a veteran. We count them as brother and sister, marine, soldiers, sailors, and airmen in that long line of patriots that have gone before,” Gregory said. “Once a veteran. Always a veteran.”
Gregory gestured with his hand toward the eight boxes containing ashes on a wood table in the middle of the outdoor pavilion.
“Welcome these veterans today.”
Honorably discharged U.S. military members and spouses are eligible for free burial in a veterans' cemetery.
To qualify, the military service has to be proved through a document known as a DD214, given to veterans at discharge and copies kept at the National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; local congressional offices and military organizations can get them for burial purposes.
But a request has to be made, and in Pennsylvania neither funeral homes or county coroners are required to check with veteran authorities. In neighboring New Jersey, veteran groups were granted the authority to claim abandoned cremated veteran ashes from coroners and funeral homes in 2009.
Who were the 8 unclaimed veterans buried Who were the 8 Bucks and Montgomery County veterans buried Thursday?
More: Bucks County Coroner's Office strives for unclaimed dead reunion with family
This year the Bucks County Coroner’s Office has identified and arranged to inter the ashes of eight unclaimed veterans in its custody who met the eligibility for a spot in a veteran’s cemetery.
After taking over as Bucks County Coroner in 2020, Meredith Buck has made it a priority to review past unclaimed dead records and mount another attempt to find final resting places for more than 200 cremated remains that were abandoned or unclaimed she inherited when she took office.
Montgomery County, where four men interred Thursday died, the coroner’s office has forwarded the names of unclaimed dead to the county’s military affairs office for review for at least 15 years.
More: Vietnam vet had no family to claim him in death. These Montco employees fulfilled his final wishes
Since 2019 alone, Montgomery County has identified and laid to rest the remains of 11 veterans, who were among roughly 150 other unclaimed dead dating back as far as 2007.
Over the last two years, Buck's office had identified and overseen the interment of seven unclaimed military veterans and spouses previously in storage at the county morgue. She also started posting online the names and basic information about unclaimed remains. The information is updated quarterly.
Bucks County Deputy Coroner Kristina Johnson is responsible for reviewing the coroner records for previously unclaimed and abandoned dead. When she identifies a potential veteran, she sends record requests to the Veterans Administration to determine eligibility for burial services.
She reviews old unclaimed records when she has time between other duties, which includes identifying newly dead and searching for next-of-kin. The morgue averages about four individuals a month who initially come to the morgue as unclaimed, she said.
Sometimes there are clues in the files that suggest someone might be a veteran, Buck said.
When Johnson reviewed the file for one man interred on Thursday she found a flag image on a copy of his driver’s license. It’s an option available to veterans in Pennsylvania, but no one picked up on it previously.
Buck said her office is working backwards from 2020 with reopening and reviewing of unclaimed case files, but it’s a slow process. Currently they are in 2018.
“It’s almost like starting fresh,” Buck said. “It’s one case at a time.”
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Forgotten in life. Honored in death. Veterans laid to rest in Bucks County
