Fallen Veteran - No Family with Military or VA experience - Burial Questions :-(

[Tampabud]

All;

A Navy Veteran, and Florida Wildlife Officer, died tragically last Wednesday in Tampa, Florida.  He has no surviving relatives except for his two young daughters.  The folks that are handling his burial have no idea that, as a Veteran, he qualifies for burial at a Vet memorial (right?).  I am a Veteran and at least know of the benefit, but have no idea where to turn to offer help to those arranging his burial.  They have started a GoFund Me page to help out, but have already started the process of having him buried thru a civilian funeral  .  Is it too late to have the VA help?  Where should I direct the efforts to see if the VA can help, if at all?  Please send me a message on here or reply to this post, I'll check in the next several hours. His name was Greg Patterson, you can google his name and add "Tampa" and you should see several stories about his death.  Thanks all

[Berta]

http://www.cem.va.gov/burial_benefits/

"The folks that are handling his burial have no idea that, as a Veteran, he qualifies for burial at a Vet memorial (right?)."

I think you mean qualified to be buried at a 'National Cemetery'...???

" They have started a GoFund Me page to help out, but have already started the process of having him buried thru a civilian funeral   "

" Is it too late to have the VA help? "

Burial matters depend on filing claims regarding the specific burial benefits his survivors would be eligible for-I think the undertaker can handle that.

They are explained in the link above.

The links at the left of that link above give more info.

http://www.benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/burials/Burial.pdf

If he is buried in a National Cemetery and is service connected, he would be entitled to an Honor Guard and the Gun Volley.

But that takes time to arrange.

When my husband died, I knew he wanted to be buried at the beautiful Bath NY VA National Cemetery. He had been cremated and the funeral was about 3 weeks later so that his best friend , also a Vietnam vet, could make arrangements to attend.

I wrote his Obit myself with all of his decorations etc and the undertaker compared it to his DD 214/215 and published it as written. Good thing I did that. The American Legion saw it in the newspaper and immediately contacted me to prepare to be the Color Guard.

The Legion vet said they needed time to get everyone together , get their uniforms ready and then buy the bullets because they were running low.

This is a very rural area. Depending on where this vet lived,however  that could go faster for the family..

I believe the National Cemetery office can direct you on that too. They didn't handle the initial preparations for actual military funerals when my husband died.

I don't think the undertaker even had a clue.

I wrote the main part of the Chapel service as well.The VA Chaplain knew my husband but didn't have a clue about his service in Vietnam and there were plenty of Vietnam vets there so the service reflected what he was all about....and what those vets could never forget......Vietnam... Horrible and sometimes wonderful -his description...and the civilians there found out why....

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by Berta

[EODCMC]

They can go to the nearest military baseHQ and ask for the CACO, I think it stands for Casualty Assistance Officer. It's typically a collateral duty for an officer on staff. If they don't have one, ask for the Command Master Chief (Navy & Coast Guard), Command Seargant Major (Marine Corps & Army) or Command Chief Master Sargeant(Air Force), depending on the service organization. They are all trained and honored to help.

Edited July 30, 2016 by EODCMC
Omission