Eagle Point National Cemetery 

While a new state law will ensure that any unclaimed remains of veterans are properly laid to rest, local veteran support groups say they’ve been taking care of business for decades.

House Bill 2147, which goes into effect Jan. 1, will require counties to appoint an official veterans officer “to ensure interment of unclaimed human remains of (a) veteran or survivor of veteran.”

Funeral homes and mortuaries will be required to notify their designated county official of any unclaimed cremains (cremated remains) and to release the remains regardless of payment for services.

State Rep. Christine Goodwin, R-Canyonville, introduced the bill, which was signed into law Sept. 27 by Gov. Tina Kotek.

Goodwin said she proposed the bill after an unsettling discovery in Roseburg four years ago, when the Douglas County Veterans Forum claimed cremains of 28 veterans that had lingered in storage for over four decades.

Goodwin said it was sobering to learn that thousands of veterans across the country who would be eligible for a proper military burial might not have received those honors.

“We are at the epicenter where there was this discovery (in Roseburg) of these cremains that had been left languishing in storage,” Goodwin said. “It was very, very sad, so I picked it up and said we needed to do something. It was too important.”

Goodwin said she requested a special ceremonial signing by Kotek to allow veteran groups to show their support.

“Veterans, and people who care about veterans, just poured in. It was so moving to see how much this bill means to veterans,” Goodwin said.

David Pearson, state road captain for the Southern Oregon chapter of the Missing in America Project, said he was grateful for the requirements under the new law, but he said that cremains of veterans in Southern Oregon were already unlikely to linger on a storage shelf.

Locally, all of the major funeral homes already work with Pearson’s group to relinquish unclaimed cremains.

For the past 20 years, Pearson said, his organization has networked with funeral homes and mortuaries to ensure unclaimed veterans are interred

at Eagle Point National

Cemetery.

Pearson, who lives in Grants Pass, said his organization provides funeral escorts and helps in other ways, too.

“Doing the funeral escorts is mainly what we do. … And we have a group that will contact funeral homes and see if there are any unclaimed remains, then they check them out and find out if they were really veterans or spouses of veterans,” he said.

“We try to find their families. If we can’t, then, by congressional order, we become their family and we get them interred with military honors. … I’ve been doing this since 2007. It’s a hassle sometimes, but it’s worth it.”

Pearson said his group and another group, the Old Guard Riders, facilitate memorial services at the national cemetery for between 20 and 40 veterans — some indigent or without family to attend — each quarter.

Teri Stacey, administrative officer for Eagle Point National Cemetery, said local funeral homes are proactive about ensuring unclaimed cremains of veterans are delivered for interment. Stacey, who also serves as administrative officer for the Roseburg National Cemetery, assisted with the cremains discovered in Douglas County, which made headlines prior to passage of House Bill 2147.

“We did a mass burial. It was ridiculous, one after another after another. The funeral homes had held on to them because they wanted their money from somebody,” Stacey said. “That was the problem. They wanted their money for the cremations, so when they weren’t claimed, they stuck them on a back shelf and left them.”

Stacey said between three and five indigent veterans are interred each month.

“When a veteran comes to us for burial, we get the case into our system. … When we see it was an indigent veteran, we obviously do the burial. Then we put their name on a list to be honored during our quarterly memorial that we have scheduled,” she

said.

“These are all the remains

of our veterans who have served this country, and we want all

of them to have a proper burial. The honor guard folds a flag, and there are rifles. … We do everything.”

Pat Allen, president of the Old Guard Riders Pacific Northwest said local veterans are passionate about ensuring final honors are given.

“Twenty years ago, 24 veterans were escorted from Grants Pass to Eagle Point (National Cemetery). That’s when it all really got started,” Allen said. “It’s great they wanted to make a law and everything, but we’ve been doing it for a long time. Taking care of our veterans. … They all served, and they all deserve to be honored.”

The next quarterly service will be held at Eagle Point National Cemetery at 1 p.m. Dec. 21.