Veteran burial program pays tribute, respect to those with no kin to claim their bodies
Jimmy Dale Lovan served his country as a Navy airman in Vietnam from 1969 to 1973, yet, when the 75-year-old veteran died at Fullerton’s Providence St. Jude Medical Center in May, there was no one to claim his body.
Orange County coroner’s officials contacted an unnamed relative, but the line of communication was lost before arrangements could be made.
In most cases, the bodies of those deemed indigent or without kin would be tended to and relocated without much recognition or ceremony. But Lovan’s status as a military veteran secured him a different destiny.
A small crowd gathered Thursday at Costa Mesa’s Harbor Lawn-Mt. Olive Memorial Park to honor the Los Angeles County veteran in a full military service, provided free of charge through Dignity Memorial’s Homeless Veterans Burial Program.
Navy representatives participated in a flag-folding ceremony that followed a live bugle performance of “Taps.” A member of the Freedom Committee of Orange County, which sent a small contingent of veterans to pay tribute, accepted the standard.
“I think it’s wonderful that our nation remembers its heroes, and I want to say a special thanks to the funeral team here for taking care of one of our own,” said Chaplain Joseph Andersen, himself a Navy veteran and owner of So Cal Clergy, before leading a prayer.
“Dear Father God, we come before you today on this hallowed ground to give thanks to the service of our great nation by Jimmy,” he began.
“His sacrifice to ensure the freedom and democracy we Americans cherish every day is a testament to the kind of person he is and the legacy he has left behind. For there is no greater sacrifice than to lay one’s life down for your fellow man.”
Dignity Memorial provides complimentary military funeral services — along with a casket, transportation and interment at a military cemetery — to members of the military, veterans and the honorably discharged who may be homeless or who have no next of kin to oversee arrangements.
Jackie Ross, general manager of Harbor Lawn-Mt. Olive Memorial Park & Mortuary, said the facility was contacted by the Orange County coroner’s office when no family stepped up to claim Lovan’s remains after months of searching.
“We’re going all out for him,” she said ahead of the service. “I’d like to think people in the hospital were with him as he passed and were a support for him. And now we’re on this journey with him as he’s laid to rest.”
Among those in attendance Tuesday were Freedom Committee members, Huntington Beach’s Ray Walls, 74, who went to Vietnam as part of the Army’s 504th Military Police Battalion in 1970, and Scott Williams, an 81-year-old Costa Mesa resident who served in the Army Ordinance Corps in Vietnam in 1968.
While group members go to funerals for one another, it’s a bit out of the ordinary to attend the funeral of a stranger. But it seemed the right thing to do, Williams said.
“We don’t want to see somebody going to their final resting place without veterans participating in their service,” he added.
“I didn’t know Mr. Lovan. [But] he answered the call of his country during difficult times. He served, and served honorably, and deserves recognition.”
Lovan’s body will be laid to rest Friday at Riverside National Cemetery where his father, also a military veteran, is interred. For more about Dignity’s Homeless Veterans Burial Program, visit dignitymemorial.com/homelessvets.
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