Honoring all those who served: Ormond Beach hosts annual Veterans Day celebration

This year's guest speaker was Army veteran Bob Adkins, who spoke about the Missing in America Project's mission to locate unclaimed veteran remains in funeral homes across the U.S.

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For the past seven years, Army veteran Bob Adkins has worked to restore honor to forgotten veterans.

As a veteran recovery officer for the Missing in America Project, Adkins works to locate unclaimed cremated remains of veterans in cemeteries across the state, with the purpose to inter them in a national cemetery. 

"You can't believe how many of them there are in the state of Florida," Adkins said. "Cremains sitting on shelves. We are there looking for our veterans. We are there looking for our veteran wives. We are there looking for our veteran and dependent children, and believe it or, they're there."

Adkins was the guest speaker for Ormond Beach's Veterans Day Celebration, held at the Ormond Beach Senior Center on Thursday, Nov. 6. The event featured lunch, live music by The Blue Notes and a proclamation presented by Ormond Beach Mayor Jason Leslie. 

Adkins, a past president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1048, often visits high schools to teach students about the Vietnam War. He used his speech at the celebration to educate, as well, focusing on the MIAP, which has visited 3,000 funeral homes across the nation. So far, 38,000 unclaimed remains have been found by the nonprofit's recovery officers. Of those 7,900, have been veterans.

To date, Adkins said the MIAP has been able to inter 7,757 of these veterans in national cemeteries.

In the state of Florida, Adkins and the MIAP have visited 220 funeral homes and found 3,500 urns of unclaimed cremated remains. Of those, 606 were veterans and 198 were military spouses. Three dependent children were also located.

"There's only about five of us in the state of Florida that do what I do," Adkins said.

And due to the government shutdown, Adkins said 25 remains scheduled to be interred were delayed. They were supposed to have been laid to rest on Oct. 30 at the South Florida National Cemetery. 

In total, 55 remains of veterans await to be interred in the state, Adkins said. The majority of the veteran remains the MIAP is finding served in Vietnam.

"It is so important to be honored as a veteran, and especially as Vietnam veterans who didn't get the recognition when we came home," Adkins said. "It's time to get these veterans who are sitting in these funeral homes — it's time to get them honored."

To learn more about the MIAP, visit www.miap.us.

 

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