It is the right of all service men and women to receive a proper military burial.

Two Butler men have been working to ensure forgotten county soldiers receive that honor.

Jerry Puff and John Moore have spent hundreds of volunteer hours during the past year locating and identifying the unclaimed cremated remains of veterans in hopes of burying them in the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh in Washington County.

“Every veteran is entitled to a burial at a national cemetery,” Puff said.

Puff and Moore, both members of the Bantam Marines detachment of the Marine Corps League, went to and searched every funeral home in the county to find any unclaimed remains of veterans.

They did it in coordination with the Missing in America Project, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to locating, identifying and interring veteran remains.

Puff and Moore found 19 remains eligible to be interred at the national cemetery, with two more waiting to be verified.

Eight of those 19 have since been claimed by family members the men were able to contact.

The other 11 are set to receive a full military funeral, complete with honors, on Aug. 23.

“We will take them from Butler to their interment,” Puff said. “Our intent is to have legion riders precede and follow the hearse to escort the cremains down to the cemetery.”

Moore said that they are hoping to have veterans from across the county, funeral homes, and law enforcement officers join them for the trip down Interstate 79 to the cemetery.

“All veterans are invited to participate,” Moore said.

Once there, the servicemen will be given a full military burial, complete with a color guard, firing detail, and the playing of taps.

Puff and Moore started their county search a year ago upon doing research into MIAP.

“We became aware of the project was out there and felt it was our duty to do this,” Moore said. “It's just the right thing to do.”

The two men had interest in doing something similar in years past, but couldn't before a state law was established in 2012 that allowed the remains of veterans to be claimed by the MIAP after 120 days.

“Before that it was a legal minefield,” Puff said.

To locate the veterans, Puff and Moore collected the names and information on all unclaimed remains in the county and ran the information through a military records office in St. Louis.

Forty remains were found in the county, with 19 being eligible veterans.

Of veterans found, seven served in the Army, two were in the Navy, one was in the Air Force, and one was a Marine.

These soldiers' service spanned a good portion of the last century, Puff said.

“The oldest soldier we found in the county started serving in 1925,” Puff said. “But they've found soldiers from the Civil War across the country.”

Nationally, more than 1,500 veterans have been identified and interred since the creation of the MIAP in 2007. Puff said there still is a lot of work to be done.

“The Missing in America Project estimates half-a-million to a million veterans' remains are laying in the basements of funeral homes waiting to be claimed,” Puff said. “That number is expected to increase due to the collapse of the family unit. Unfortunately, a lot of young people out there don't care if their grandfather served in war.”

Puff said only about five counties in the state are actively searching for veterans' remains; few have been as effective as Butler County.

“We have a very caring and a very patriotic county,” he said. “And because of the people here, we've been able to find these veterans relatively quickly.”

While giving forgotten soldiers a respectable burial is the main goal of their project, Puff said spreading awareness of the cause is also very important.

“It's our intent to reach as many people in Butler County as we can,” he said. “We were surprised so many people didn't know what veterans are entitled to.”

Puff and Moore said anyone seeking to get a veteran interred can contact the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies directly by calling 724-746-4363,

As for Puff and Moore, the two men plan on continuing to search for the remains of forgotten soldiers.

“We're going to keep doing this every year,” Moore said. “We'll do this as long as it's needed.”