RIVERTON, Utah — A mission by the Missing in America Project honored 10 veterans whose remains were unclaimed and five others who were reunited with their families.
After a procession that began in Salt Lake City, the 14 deceased veterans were interred at the Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Riverton.
Roger Greaves, Utah State Coordinator for the Missing in America project, said the organization stands in the place of families for deceased veterans whose remains haven't been reunited with anyone.
"We go door-to-door to funeral homes and see who they have on the shelves left. We do background research, find out if they're veterans, find out if they're honorably discharged which qualifies them for a burial like they had today," Greaves said. "Then it's on. We start planning one of these services and give these guys their final honors."
Graves said there are as many as 200,000 American veterans whose remains haven't been claimed. So far, Missing in America has interred about 3,600 of them, including 127 in Utah.
The following veterans were interred in Riverton Saturday:
- Randall Carl Jackson
- Phillip Edwin Laughlin
- Robert Robinson
- Michael Kenneth Wright
- Robert Ernest Pooler
- Pierce Henry Thompson
- David Torres Anzures
- David Charles Wiggins
- Joseph McLaren
- Joseph Don Royle
- Frank Louis Henderson
- John Eber Marks
- Bruce Malcolm Scott
- Victor Noa Camacho
- Freddie Lee Litrell, Jr.
