A member of the Nevada Veterans Coalition carries an urn at the Missing in Nevada service in 2019.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
The veterans to be honored Friday may have been sons, fathers or close friends, yet their remains have been unclaimed for years.
The first Missing in Nevada funeral since 2019 at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery north of Fernley will remember 19 veterans. The ceremony, to be conducted by the Nevada Veterans Coalition, begins at 10 a.m.
Since 2009 when MIN began, the NVC has interred more than 350 veterans.
Full military honors will be afforded.
The remains may have been discovered on a mortuary’s shelf or in a storage shed. Once identified, a local mortuary prepares the veterans for burial at either the NNVMC or the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City. The 19 veterans to be honored Friday grew up in different parts of the country, but their final home of record was the Silver State.
Nevada Department of Veterans Services uses solemn services such as these to acknowledge the veterans’ sacrifices and to give a general assessment of their backgrounds. A rifle volley, “taps” and a flag-folding ceremony and presentation of a U.S. flag follow comments.
“These unaccompanied memorial services show that these veterans who are interred are in the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery are not buried alone but are surrounded by brothers and sisters in service and by our community supporters,” the NDVS announces at each service.
Veterans being recognized Friday:
Air Force
Donald Deramus, Terrance Kaiser, Joseph Malumphy, Wesley Rubarth, Duyet Tran and Frank Weirauch.
Army
John Awe, James Coggins, David McMurray, George Pope, Martin Salzer, Michael Sandmann, Jack Slate and William Wisckol.
Marine Corps
Jack Martinez
Navy
George Abernathy, Walter Bindi, Robert Brewer and Joseph Letko.