Sgt. Barry Capito Vietnam veteran laid to rest with full military honors

Roanoke Vietnam veteran laid to rest with full military honors
Barry Capito had no family and little money when he died last month. With the help of a fellow veteran and a Roanoke funeral home, he received a proper burial.
By Matt Chittum

DUBLIN -- Barry Wayne Capito died a bachelor living paycheck to paycheck.

A close friend found the decorated Vietnam War veteran dead on his sofa in his Roanoke home last month.

With no family to speak of to make funeral arrangements, and no pot of money to pay for them, Capito's journey to his final resting place -- wherever that would be -- was hard to plot.

Until a concerned fellow vet and a Roanoke funeral home took up his cause.

Thanks to them, Capito, 64, was buried Monday morning in the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin with full military honors.

With rifles aimed toward overcast skies, the honor guard from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1184 in Pulaski fired a three-shot volley, and a solitary bugler played taps. Two soldiers lifted the U.S. flag from the casket and with crisp and practiced moves folded it into a triangle.

"I would hope somebody would do the same if it was me on the other side," said Ron Kotz, a claims agent with the Virginia Department of Veterans Services who took up Capito's cause though it wasn't part of his job.

Kotz, himself a 16-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, knew Capito from helping to connect him with veterans benefits over the years, though he didn't know him well. On Monday, Kotz accepted the folded flag.

"I'm going to leave it in my office," he said. "Unless somebody shows up who is next of kin, which I doubt, it will just stay there."

Capito grew up in southeast Roanoke, said Larry Johnson, the friend who found him dead.
v Capito was drafted into the Army during Vietnam, Johnson said. According to his service record, he was in Vietnam from Jan. 8, 1969, to Sept. 5, 1970 -- one year, seven months and 28 days.

He'd been awarded the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal, according to Kotz. Johnson said he left the Army as a sergeant.
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