CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When a veteran dies, his family decides to bury him wearing his military uniform. But, what happens when a vet dies and doesn't have a family?
Several organizations work together to ensure that there is a uniform available for that veteran to wear.
When one of our veterans dies, there isn't always a huge gathering of family and friends for the burial. Over the years, there have been a number of requests asking people to show up to a veteran's funeral who had no family.
There's also a little known program which will also make sure the vet is buried in a military uniform.
"What that is, is that when veterans pass away, funeral homes or family members will reach out to Goodwill and we provide them with dress military uniforms so that's a veteran could be buried with respect and dignity," Marjorie Boudreaux with Goodwill said.
That program that Goodwill started up five years ago is called, "Uniforms for the Final Salute." It ensures that those veterans can be buried in a military uniform from their branch of service.
"It's a partnership between Trevino Funeral Home, Peerless Cleaners Goodwill, the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery and Nueces County Veteran's Services," Boudreaux said.
Goodwill has uniforms for all branches of the military thanks to the donations that people have made over the years. Peerless Cleaners also keeps uniforms pressed and ready.
"We will pull the military dress uniform from our inventory," she added. "We take that over to Peerless Cleaners to get it cleaned and they remove any identifying patches that it might have so we provide the jacket and the pants and we get it to the funeral home in 48 hours."
This program did begin here in Corpus Christi five years ago on Memorial Day weekend. So, if you want to honor a veteran this weekend you might think about donating that old uniform you may have hanging in your closet. It's one that could be used as one of the uniforms for the final salute.
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