Six honored at Mountain Home’s Unaccompanied Veterans Service

Anslee Daniel
·2 min read

MOUNTAIN HOME, Tenn. (WJJHL) — When a service member or veteran passes away, it’s customary for the military to provide honors for their service. But sometimes they don’t have any family to help, and that’s where their fellow veterans step in.

A rifle salute, playing of Taps, and a flag folding presentation occurred Wednesday, April 17 to give six veterans the recognition they deserve.

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Those veterans are:

  • Larry David Cooper, Army, Vietnam War Era

  • James Dale Jones, Army, Vietnam War Era

  • Jon Rhae Lee, Navy, Peacetime Era

  • Jeffery Leon Mack, Army, Peacetime Era

  • James Thomas Sowers, Army, Vietnam War Era

  • John Earl Wagner, Army, Vietnam War Era

“They lose touch with their families or they just don’t have any families left or decisions, they’re being buried here without any honors being performed because there’s no family member. We like to make sure every veteran gets the honors they deserve and are remembered,” said Brian Peterson, the Administrative Officer for Mountain Home National Cemetery and Navy Veteran. “Sometimes the coroner’s office has spent a couple of years trying to locate family members of people that they have. They just can’t do it anymore so they ask that we can do their internment and give them their final resting place that they deserve.”

Fellow veterans and groups like Rolling Thunder, Vietnam Veterans of America and American Legion Post 24 helped to put the ceremony on.

“Pretty much all the ones that are unclaimed are coming into my range now as well too, being peacetime and whatever with that,” said Allen Jackson, Navy veteran and historian for the Tri-Cities Military Affairs Council and member of American Legion Post 24. “But, a lot are Vietnam veterans, and we’ve actually had a World War II veteran one time and a Korean veteran and those guys are my heroes. They’re the reason I served, and the shoulders that they gave me and their stiff back helped me to do what I needed to do in the military.”

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Mildred Longcrier took care of Army veteran Jeffery Mack, who was honored at the service. She took him places and helped make sure he had food and his bills were paid.

“He passed just recently, which came as kind of a shock to me,” Longcrier said. “He just passed away so they got in touch with me to let me know.”

Longcrier said Mack was honored to be a veteran, and serving his country meant a lot to him.

“They fought for our country and they’ve been injured, and they are people and they have no family,” she said. “I just can’t bear the thought of someone not having some type of little service.”

The Unaccompanied Veterans Service is held once a quarter. The next one is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17 at 3 p.m. in the new section of the Mountain Home National Cemetery.

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