HONOR GUARD
The remains of 10 Butler County veterans were given their final burials at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies on Friday morning.
Military veterans and American Legion riders stood silently and respectfully as the remains of the veterans were laid to rest.
Just the playing of taps and a gun salute breaking the silence at the solemn ceremony presented a stark contrast to the roaring engines of the more than 80 motorcycles driven by American Legion Riders who escorted the remains down Interstate 79 south earlier that morning.
The ceremony was the conclusion to hundreds of hours of work done by two Butler men to located the unclaimed remains of veterans.
Jerry Puff and John Moore spent more than a year visiting every funeral home in the county and running background checks on any unclaimed remains they found to identify these veterans.
Puff said he was thrilled to see the number of people who showed up to honor the veterans Friday.
“It's good to see so many people care about what's going on,” he said.
After more than a year of work, Puff said he was both excited and nervous to see the burial finally happen.
“There was a lot of anxiety,” he said. “But we had a good plan and a lot of good people to execute it.”
Moore shared his partner's opinion.
“It was a wonderful thing,” he said. “It went off well. I think it was one of the bigger things to happen for veterans in the county.”
The remains were taken by a hearse from Moraine Pointe Plaza to the cemetery in Washington County, Pa.
More than 50 legion riders and numerous vehicles full of Marine Corps League members escorted the remains from Butler, and were joined by even more riders along the way.
“Veterans deserve to be honored,” said LeRoy Bunyan, president of the Butler Legion Riders. “That's why we came out here today.”Butler State Police and the Butler County Sheriff's Department also assisted in escorting the remains.Bunyan said the riders for this trip were from different parts of the state, adding that the Legion does different military escorts throughout the year.Following the ride to the cemetery, the veterans' unclaimed remains were given a full military funeral.Two families of the soldiers buried were in attendance. Each received an American flag and a Bible from the 117th American Legion Post.John Prichard, the District 26 Commander for the American Legion, said the efforts by everyone involved should be praised.“It's an impressive show of support for our veterans,” he said. “When Legion riders do something, they do it big and they do it right.”Prichard added that everyone should thank Puff and Moore for organizing the ceremony.“It's a tribute to how much they care about the veterans in Butler,” he said.Bunyan also praised Puff and Moore: “They've done tireless work for over a year.”The two men worked in coordination with the Missing in America Project, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to locating, identifying and interring veterans' remains.Puff and Moore found the remains of 19 soldiers in the county, with nine being claimed by family.The project estimates that more than half a million veteran remains are unclaimed across the county.Moore said he and Puff are ready to begin to plan for additional services, but said it is too early to say when those would occur.
