Kentucky Funeral Home Organizes Full Military Funeral For Unclaimed Veteran With No Family
A Kentucky funeral home has organized a full military funeral for a veteran whose body was unclaimed by family after his death.
According to WKYT, Don Kaas died on July 29 at the VA Medical Center in Lexinton, Kentucky, but no family claimed his remains.
Thanks to the owners of a funeral home who had no connection to the veteran, Kaas will receive full military honors, according to WDBR.
“He was a veteran in the Navy in Vietnam,” said Zach Young with Ramsey Funeral Home. ” We don’t have any information on rank or anything like that. He was 66-years-old and his name was Don Kaas and honestly, that’s all we needed to know.”
Tomorrow, a Ky. funeral home will provide a military funeral to a veteran with no family http://t.co/asL9ntcs4j pic.twitter.com/zSOHQjclNV
— WDRB News (@WDRBNews) August 13, 2015
Young and his father decided it was only fitting to give Kaas a proper military burial on Thursday.
“As soon as we were contacted about it me and dad talked about it and we felt kind of obligated,” said Young.
The funeral for the veteran will be held Thursday at Camp Nelson National Cemetery in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
“It took a couple days to get everything situated to where we could get him here,” Young said.
The funeral home took to Facebook to invite the public to attend the funeral for the Viet Nam veteran.
Veterans: if you’re near Lancaster, KY, there’s a funeral tomorrow for Don Kaas, who has no know living relatives. pic.twitter.com/nQkYpAv8Mp
— Mr. X ??? ??????? (@GlomarResponder) August 12, 2015
Young said it took about a week of talking with the VA Medical Center in Lexington where Kaas died, but eventually Kaas’ body was released so the burial could be performed.
The Kentucky funeral home director said it was a no brainer to take on the burden of the burial.
“My grandfather fought in Vietnam,” he said, “My great grandfather was World War II. It’s just something that we needed to.”
The Kentucky funeral home is also asking that anyone who wants to donate money for the funeral donate to any military charity instead.
NEXT- Kentucky funeral home providing military funeral to veteran with no family. http://t.co/1RBYnkrzAu pic.twitter.com/EfxloJ3WUR
— Sterling Riggs (@SRiggsWDRB) August 13, 2015
On Wednesday, the funeral home thanked the public for its support.
“We here at the funeral home have been deeply touched by the support of the community and beyond,” reads a Facebook post by the Kentucky funeral home. “To one and all, thank you for justifying our faith in the American Spirit.”
[Image courtesy of WDBR]
