Missing in America effort lays Vietnam Vet to final rest

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A final ceremony, but not the last
Military burial for Natick veteran serves as start for Missing in America effort

By Michele Morgan Bolton
Globe Correspondent / June 19, 2008
The crack of a 21-gun salute broke the silence in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.

Four years after his death, Master Sergeant Adam A. Kippes finally came to rest in the plot of land set aside for veterans like him. Kippes was the first veteran in Massachusetts to be given military burial honors through the efforts of the Missing in America Project.

The program, founded in Oregon last year, searches for the forgotten cremated remains of veterans that have languished on shelves or in the dusty basements of funeral homes, state hospitals, and prisons - in some cases for more than 100 years.

Or, as in the case of Kippes, remains that have been kept by loving relatives who couldn't afford to provide a proper funeral service for them.

"This is something Adam would have wanted," said his sister-in-law, Carol Shedd of Natick, as she cradled the folded American flag presented to her as part of the June 6 ceremony for Kippes. "He was military all the way."

As a chill settled in the air, Shedd, 78, said she was relieved and grateful that Kippes would be given his place of honor, earned during a 28-year Army career during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Kippes was 89 years old and a resident of the Alzheimer's unit of a Natick nursing home when he died in 2004. But before that, Shedd said, he lived and breathed the Army, even after he retired.

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A Chaplain friend of mine is involved with this group. Not that the media would ever report on them. Thank you Boston Globe!