OCALA - Two honorably discharged veterans, both homeless and indigent, were honored with military honors Friday at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens prior to their burial at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
Individual ceremonies were held for Raymond Nowicki, 82, a U.S. Army veteran who died June 1, and U.S. Navy veteran Ross Walls, 63, who died on May 21. The deaths were not connected.
This is the eighth year local partners have conducted such ceremonies. This was the first time the group conducted two on the same day.
Nowicki served in the Army from Aug. 3, 1953, through Aug. 3, 1955.
Walls was in the Navy 22 years, from Dec. 15, 1970, to Jan. 31, 1993.
“We do this with dignity to honor these veterans. They’ve earned it,” said Vietnam War veteran Dennis Flauding, with Amvets Post 19 in Fort McCoy, one of several groups represented at the ceremony.
Flauding and passenger Pat Bush rode his 1989 Screaming Eagle Ultra Classic Harley-Davidson in an escort of 11 motorcycles, which led the hearse for each veteran’s service a short distance from the funeral home to the adjacent cemetery’s centrally located Veteran’s Memorial.
The ceremonies were held under an American flag and flags of each branch of the Armed Services.
“It’s sad. No one, family, friends or neighbors came forward to claim these men,” said Marion County Veterans Service officer Jeffrey Askew as he officiated over the two ceremonies.
Askew, an ordained minister with Gospel Fellowship Outreach, called both veterans “brothers in arms, fallen comrades” who were willing to defend freedom with their lives.
“We honor and remember you,” said Askew. He also recited lines from a poem he wrote and read from the book of 1 Corinthians.
The 18 chairs reserved for family members and friends remained empty as the services began, but the hearts of the roughly 25 members of several veterans groups and Forest Lawn Funeral Home employees standing around the honor guard were full.
“These services are special, very special,” said funeral home employee Gina Brooks as she looked on.
“This is the least we can do,” added funeral home director David Rosser.
“Several of the members of the (parent company) Dignity Memorial board of directors are veterans,” he said.
Dignity Memorial provides the casket, flag and transportation to the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
John Rose, with the Marion County Veterans Council, said the council coordinates with the county in cases where the indigent or homeless person has no family and is a veteran.
“These two veterans were in hospice care and their bodies went unclaimed,” he said.
Rose, who also represents American Legion Al Krietemeyer Memorial Post 284 in Belleview, said he “sees an increase in the homeless veteran burial program with the aging of the veteran population.”
Cheryl Amey, director of Marion County Community Services, said that when a hospital, hospice or other facility has a deceased person whose body remains unclaimed and no relatives can be found, the county personnel may determine the person is a veteran and then involve Askew and in turn Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memory Gardens and the MCVC for services.
“We encounter about 80 to 100 unclaimed bodies each year. There are some programs like the veterans program to help,” Amey said.
Otherwise, the body would have been cremated and, in the case of a veteran, would be sent to Bushnell.
The ceremony Friday joined several groups to provide the honors.
Marion County Marine Corps League 061, American Legion Post 284 and Amvets Post 19 joined to provide each veteran a three-volley salute. The Marine Corp League handled the ceremonial folding of the flag for each service.
Wilbur Julius with Veterans of Foreign Wars Brady Owens Post 7193 of Ocala played taps and joined the three-volley salute. Bob Smith represented VFW Post 4493 of Candler.
Bob Chiles represented the Disabled American Veterans and Kathy “Kat” McLaughlin of POW MIA advocacy group Honor, Release, Return/The Ride Home, who rode on a Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic motorcycle with John Grimstead of American Legion Post 284, served as an honorary pallbearer.
The motorcycle escort included members of the U.S. Military Veterans riders, headed by Danny Underwood and the Nam Knights organized by Michael Hill.
John Earl provided a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
Marine Corp League Detachment 061 member Richard Pirrwitz, a Vietnam War veteran, presented ceremonial flags from both services to Suzanne McGuire, Marion County Schools Homeless Children Liaison and a member of the MCVC Board of Directors.
“These flags will be donated to the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park and be used in the Veterans In the Classroom program,” McGuire said.
Pirrwitz’s words as he presented the flag, folded in solemn ceremony, to McGuire, may have summed up the intent of the two services: “From a grateful nation,” he said as the skies opened up with rain as if to provide a close to the ceremonies.