LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Sgt. Herman Brown Jr., who served in the U.S. Army for four years, was laid to rest Wednesday as the first unaccompanied burial at the West Texas State Veterans Cemetery.
Dr. John Kelly, the director for the Texas State Veterans Cemeteries Division, says Brown had no known family members to attend the burial, but he said no veteran should ever be laid to rest alone.
No veteran to be laid to rest alone
“We don’t know much about him beyond what we find on that DD-214, and we don’t know the circumstances of his life that brings him here today without next of kin, but what we do know, is he served his country faithfully and honorably, and we do know this community cares because they are showing up to be here and witness for a veteran they never met before,” Kelly said.
Kelly said every veteran’s burial is personal and that every service member deserves to be honored and remembered.
Honoring our veterans
“But it’s also very personal for me because I am a veteran too, I spent 23 years in the U.S. Army, so we have veterans on various staff and all the different cemeteries, we all feel the same way about it. This is our home too, this is where we will all be interred as well, so we want to treat our veterans and families just like we want our family to be treated once our time comes,” Kelly said…