27 Veterans Laid to Rest After Being Forgotten

Remains of 27 veterans laid to rest after decades

KMVT 11 News

Rebecca Kitchen

September 26, 2017

FERNLEY, Nev. (KOLO) -- They served our county, but for decades, the remains of 27 veterans were unclaimed at Walton's Mortuary in Fernley, Nevada. They served in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and most of them passed nearly 30 years ago.

"Nobody ever came to claim them," Tom Draughon with the Northern Nevada Veterans Coalition said. "Nobody ever came and took them home."

Draughon says they will continue to look until every veteran who passes hears the words, 'Well done, good and faithful patriot. Enter into your well earned rest."

To learn more about the Missing in America Project, click here.

The veterans who were laid to rest are:

Charles Beckerman (1896-1984) served in the US Navy 1918 - 1918 WWI

Gerald Gillingham (1900-1990) served in the US Army 1918 - 1918 WWI

Edward Gerval (1915-1990) served in the US Navy 1945 - 1945 WWII

Joseph Bosse (1917-1988) served in the US Army 1941 - 1945 WWII

William Degliantoni (1919-1990) served in the US Navy 1940 - 1945 WWII

William Guthrie (1925-1990) served in the US Navy 1943 - 1946 WWII

Arturo Hayes (1922-1983) served in the US Marine Corp 1944 - 1946 WWII

Webster Johnson (1911-1988) served in the US Navy 1942 - 1946 WWII

Bernard Koolpe (1914-1988) served in the US Army 1940 - 1945 WWII

Richard Long (1921-1988) served in the US Army 1943 - 1950 WWII

Sterling McPherson (1921-1990) served in the US Army 1945 - 1947 WWII

Knox Moore (1921-1989) served in the US Merchant Marines 1942 - 1945 WWII

Eddie Robbins (1923-1988) served in the US Army 1945 - 1947 WWII

Andrew Sealock (1920-1990) served in the US Army 1943 - 1946 WWII

Earl Spaulding (1921-1989) served in the US Navy 1943 - 1945 WWII

Lorenzo Thompson (1913-1988) served in the US Army 1942 - 1945 WWII

Heinrich Ulrich Jr. (1907-1989) served in the US Navy 1943 - 1945 WWII

James White (1915-1989) served in the US Army 1943 - 1946 WWII

James Wilson (1920-1988) served in the US Army 1944 - 1946 WWII

James Adams (1924-1989) served in the US Navy 1944 - 1952 WWII/Korea

Edward Alexander (1921-1989) served in the US Navy 1941 - 1952 WWII/Korea

Lyle LaMere (1923-1989) served in the US Air Force 1942 - 1963 WWII/Korea

Devier Tozer (1925-1989) served in the US Navy 1943 - 1950 WWII/Korea

Terry Fausch (1934-1983) served in the US Air Force 1951 - 1955 Korea

Patrick Ingram (1936-1985) served in the US Army 1954 - 1957 Korea

Charles Roe (1921-1990) served in the US Navy 1941 - 1946/1969 - 1974 WWII/Vietnam

Ronald Bowser (1947-1984) served in the US Army 1965 - 1976 Vietnam

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Amputee Afghanistan Veteran Happy to Pull The Trigger...on Moose and Hopelessness

For this injured veteran, this year’s moose hunt was more than just a hunt

Bangor Daily News

John Holyoke

September 28, 2017

“So I was like, ‘I’ll just keep moving with it.’ I kind of accepted it. And now I have this opportunity. That’s the way I see it. God saved me for a reason. I get to share my story with everybody.” Zachary Stinson

Zachary Stinson of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with the moose he shot a on the opening day of the 2017 moose season season in Maine. Stinson, a former Marine, was injured in Marjah, Afghanistan, seven years ago. Gabor Degre BDN

Among the dozens of hunters who visited Gateway Variety in Ashland on Monday morning, one had a story to share that was less about moose and more about life. It was a tale of tragedy, recovery and appreciation. And as Zachary Stinson explained, it’s a story he feels he has learned can make a difference to others.

Stinson is a direct, friendly 28-year-old who drove 15 hours from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to take part in his own hunt of a lifetime.

Hours after pulling the trigger, Stinson was still excited, eagerly describing the hunt a group of locals helped set up for him.
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Man Charged with Ripping Off Disabled Vietnam Veteran

Man accused of ripping off Vietnam War Veteran for $200,000
KSDK
Sam Clancy
September 27, 2017

The charging documents said Ryan S. Saunders borrowed 203,387 from the veteran in a business arrangement at the beginning of 2014 and promised to pay the veteran back by February of 2015, but never did. (Photo: Washington County Sheriff's Office, Custom)

WASHINGTON COUNTY, MO. - Charges were filed Tuesday against a man who police said borrowed more than $200,000 from a disabled Vietnam War Veteran and never paid him back.

According to charging documents, Ryan S. Saunders of Potosi Missouri was charged with financial exploitation of a disabled person, forgery and passing bad checks.

The charging documents said Saunders borrowed $203,387 from the veteran in a business arrangement at the beginning of 2014. He promised to pay the veteran back by February of 2015 but never did.

Saunders wrote multiple checks from different bank accounts that totaled more than $220,000, but all the accounts were either closed or nonexistent, according to charging documents.
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More Older Veterans Commit Suicide When Loneliness is the Enemy

Yale finally figured out what we've known all along. Veterans need to be with other veterans. They are the only ones who know what it is like to hold that rare distinction of putting the lives of others ahead of their own.

I think they should add in retirement coupled with loneliness.

For suicidal veterans, loneliness is the deadliest enemy

Yale News

Bill Hathaway

September 28, 2017

“To date, there has been a strong emphasis on treating pathology rather than bolstering resources these individuals may already possess. Results of this study suggest that preventing suicidal thinking may not only be about fixing what is wrong, but also building what is strong.” Robert H. Pietrzak

(© stock.adobe.com)

About 20 veterans commit suicide every day. The primary enemy most veterans face after service is not war-related trauma but loneliness, according to a new study by researchers at Yale and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The study, scheduled to be published Oct. 1 in the journal World Psychiatry, followed 2,000 veterans over a period of four years to help explain why studies have shown that vets are more than twice as likely to kill themselves as their civilian counterparts.  At enrollment, the participants never had suicidal thoughts and were representative of U.S. military veterans as a whole: They were predominantly older, with an average age of 62, and two-thirds had never seen combat.

“When you look at the age breakdown of veterans who kill themselves, 65 percent are over the age of 50,” said lead author Robert H. Pietrzak, Director of the Translational Psychiatric Epidemiology Laboratory of the Clinical Neurosciences Division of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD and associate professor of psychiatry at Yale. “We sought to identify early warning signs of suicide risk in this population, much like high blood pressure and cholesterol levels can help predict heart disease.”

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It is a bond that cannot be broken with time or distance. It turns strangers into brothers, willing to die for each other. Civilians do not understand that and veterans are uneasy among them. Yet put veterans together at a veterans event and you see life come back into their eyes and years mean nothing.

William Chrisman Iraq Veteran Killed on Second Job Protecting Woman

Security guard shot, killed outside of Jacksonville strip club was veteran, father

CBS 47 Action News

September 27, 2017

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The man killed trying to break up a fight outside of a Jacksonville strip club early Wednesday morning was a veteran and a father, his family tells Action News Jax.

William Chrisman was an Iraq War veteran who did two tours and had four young children, his father-in-law Mike Ellis Cooper said.

Cooper said Chrisman also worked for Harley-Davidson in Jacksonville. Chrisman worked at Flash Dancers two nights a week to pick up some extra cash. He wasn't supposed to work that night, but someone called in so he picked up the extra shift, Cooper said.

Chrisman was trying to break up a fight between two customers that started inside the club when he was shot in the parking lot of Flash Dancers early Wednesday morning.

“He was standing up for somebody that was weaker, that was being picked on. He stepped in to stop it, (which) ended up costing him his life,” Cooper said.

Anyone with information on those individuals is asked to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or call CrimeStoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS to remain anonymous.

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