Help us help vets with an individual contribution in your community. The best way to impact the vets around you is with hands-on assistance through your business, a veteran service organization, and in your community. You can also help our emergency aid initiative with a donation to the Military Family Assistance Fund.
RESCHEDULED: SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA VETERANS CEMETERY TO CONDUCT BURIAL HONORS FOR INDIGENT VETERANS
BATON ROUGE, La.—Burial honors for six indigent veterans at the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery have been rescheduled due to tomorrow’s anticipated inclement weather. The burials will now take place on Thursday, March 24 at 11 a.m. Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Joey Strickland, COL (USA Retired) encourages the public, as well as members of all local veterans service organizations, to attend the burials to honor these veterans for their service.
“We owe the men and women who have served our country a debt of gratitude, and that includes a burial with dignity,” said Secretary Strickland. “These veterans do not have any relatives; however, we as a community will stand in the gap to honor them at their final resting place.”
The cemetery staff, in partnership with the St. Mary Parish Coroner’s Office and LDVA veterans assistance counselors, worked to locate the families of these veterans, but none were found. Over the past two years, 44 indigent veterans were interred at LDVA’s five veterans cemeteries.
The six veterans being laid to rest are:
PVT Darryl A. Lowry, Army
SP4 James Cecil Osborne, Army
SGT Edward Lee Hall, Army
CPL Alton Eugene Caudle, Marines
SR Steve Edward Bihlmire, Navy
PO3 Dean Ira Hurst, Navy
Seating under the committal shelter is limited. The Southwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery is located at 1620 Evangeline Road in Jennings. For more information about the service or the cemetery, call 337.246.7094 or email swlvc@la.gov.
###
