Homeless veterans buried with full honors

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Homeless%20Veterans

DALLAS -- Harold Dean Harris died homeless and destitute in an abandoned building and might have gone to a pauper's grave if not for the military papers found in his wallet.

An Army veteran, he was buried Thursday with full military honors. No friends or family came, and no old Army buddies swapped stories. But it was a soldier's farewell, the morning air broken by a 21-gun salute fired by a group of paralyzed veterans.

Harris, 63, and another homeless Army veteran, Hayden Glyn Kresge, 53, were laid to rest at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery because of a partnership between the Veterans Affairs Department and a nationwide funeral home network that has paid for military burials for more than 300 homeless vets over the past two years.

Very little was known about either man, both of whom served two-year Army stints decades earlier. Military officials could not immediately say where the two men served. Neither had relatives or friends at their brief, back-to-back ceremonies.

more

[expatriot]

1. So sad.... this is how we treat our veterans...

Faceless, nameless suckers to fight the wars of the wealthy.

[SoCalDem]

2. How "special"..

While I am glad he got a proper "send-off", it would have been infinitely more humane to have treated him like a human being when he was alive.

Why was he living in an abandoned building?


63 and 53 are not "ancient ages". These men died young because their country "used" them when they were young and healthy, and then tossed them aside like so much used kleenex..


Burying them in military fashion is a kind gesture, but it'snot a proper way to thank them...

[rzemanfl]

3. Bet they'd have rather had a house to live in. By the way

how do "paralyzed" veterans fire a 21 gun salute? Just asking...

[Erika]

4. The Republicans want to slash Veteran's benefits even

more. It must suck to be a republican.