Last Saturday, the ashes of six forgotten veterans were finally buried in Superior. The ashes of those vets had been stored for years in local funeral homes.
The service for these veterans wasn’t scheduled to take place until 1 p.m. But by noon, there were more than 200 people on hand. The organizer of this service, Joe Penney, says although he did expect a lot of people, he wasn’t expecting this many.
Eighteen members of the Honor Guard joined in the ceremony with a 21-gun salute and a bugler for Taps. Outside of that, the plots where the veterans were buried were surrounded by a sea of flags, with the Patriot Guard protecting the site. The Daughters of the American Revolution also presented the veterans with a wreath.
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Joe Penney was impressed, “But I’d never seen anybody come together on this. And all these groups that come together here, I’ve never this many groups come together in my life. And some weren’t even invited.”
Patriot Guard Rider Avis Tetrault rode up from the Twin Cities area.She, too, is impressed, “One guy came up on his motorcycle from Hutchinson; I mean that’s way southern Minnesota. And the veterans come out big time in support of their brothers. It’s wonderful”
Leatherneck Chad Greeder says the reason why all these riders and veterans showed up was the same, to remember and to be remembered, “It’s all about the brotherhood, I would like someone to remember my service as well as we all remembered theirs. It’s for the freedom.”
The six buried were Vietnam veterans Michael Wellner and Richard Dell’ Olio, Korean War vets Glen Lavin and Richard Lajoie, and World War II veterans Eugene Johnson and Robert Berg.
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