Utah: 22 Veterans Once Forgotten Remembered

‘They have all of us’ — ‘forgotten’ veterans finally put to rest in Utah cemetery
The Salt Lake Tribune
By KRISTEN MOULTON
First Published Aug 01 2015

Bluffdale • Twenty veterans who died in Utah, forgotten by or estranged from family and friends, are forgotten no more.

(Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jeff Childs of the Patriot Guard Riders reacts as he accepts the flag representing the Army veterans whose remains have never been claimed. Those remains were interred at the Utah state veterans cemetery in Bluffdale on Saturday. Flags were also presented for Navy and Air Force veterans. A total of 22 veterans whose remains are unclaimed.

On Saturday, their cremated remains and those of two other vets were interred at the Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Bluffdale after a military funeral replete with a wreath-laying, rifle volleys, taps and a separate flag-folding and presentation by honor guards of the three military branches.

Some say it's sad these veterans had no one to claim them, said funeral organizer Roger Graves of Cedar City. "I beg to differ. They have all of us. ... Everyone in this chapel today is their family."

"Veterans are all brothers and sisters," said Ogden resident Dennis Howland, president of the Northern Utah chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America. "They belong to us."

Who was interred

The “forgotten” veterans whose remains were buried were:

David Reubin Beveridge » Navy

Adrien Robert Boileau » Army, 1956-58

Paul S. Bronson Jr. » Army, 1942-45 and 1946-58

Danny Rae Brownlee » U.S. Navy, peacetime

Woodrow Isaac Burton » Army, 1968-70

David Earl Conley » Army

John Bredley Davenport » Navy, 1963-65

Louis William Dettling » Navy, 1944-45

Robert Leroy Ele, Army » 1972-74

Joseph William Hedgbeth » Army 1946-49

Gerhart Jansen » Merchant Marine, 1943

John Mills Jeffers » Navy, 1961-64 and 1964-74

John M. Jones » Army, 1968-71 and 1974-77

Keri K. Kuehn » Army, 1972-73

Melvin Moore » Navy, 1960-62

Robert Muir » Army, 1939-60

Larry Eugene Peterson » Air Force, 1957-60

James Saxton » Navy 1958-60

Arent T. Sjursen III » Air Force, 1961-62

James Weiss » Navy, 1959-60

read more about them here