National Operations Coordinator
Fred Salanti
305 NE 6th St
Grants Pass, OR 97526
(541)261-8686

National Secretary
Cheryl Egan
3490 Quincey Court
Fairfield, CA 94534
(707)421-8722

The military burial is how our nation shows gratitude to the men and women who have faithfully defended our country. Yet so many veterans have been forgotten. They can be found on mortuary shelves, in cans or boxes. They were homeless, or without family, or just forgotten by their family and remain unclaimed.

That is until the Missing in America Project (MIAP) came into existence. Our mission is to locate, identify and inter, with honor, every veteran languishing on a mortuary shelf. We have learned there are no laws requiring a coroner or a mortuary to verify whether someone ever served in the military. Until that verification is done, arrangements cannot be made for interment in a national cemetery, with honors. Unless this is done these men and women, who served our great nation, will remain on a dusty shelf.

It is MIAP’s belief the ashes of our veterans, forgotten or ignored by their families, are spread all across this country, from state hospitals to funeral homes. MIAP has spent the last year visiting funeral homes nationwide, asking to be let in to identify these veterans so they can get them properly buried in a national or state cemetery. It's a challenging task, considering not all the nation's 45,000 funeral homes are willingly opening their doors to show what's in their back rooms.

In a year, MIAP has located, identified and interred 101 veterans with honors.
There's much more to do. Thousands of America's war veterans are warehoused in back rooms, dusty basements and closets waiting for a proper burial. It's a monumental effort, but MIAP feels it's the right thing to do and will remain in existence until it is assured every veteran has been located. The latest news is on a Memorial Service at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. View at

http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?aid=67740&sid=138863&bw=hi&cat=70

Here is an additional video from the Memorial Service in Redding, CA

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a388/ducpho/MIAP/?action=view&current=AVSEQ01.flv

In an interview given to CBS13, Mr. Salanti said "We have veterans that want to be taken care of," he says. "If we want to mouth the words that we're patriots, if we want to mouth the words we want to honor and respect our veterans, then let's do it for all of them. The ones left on the shelf, and the current ones." You can view the interview at

http://cbs13.com/consumer/call.kurtis.kurtis.2.566261.html.

MIAP is in need of volunteers to locate our forgotten veterans, cash donations to keep it operating as it needs funds to pay fees for burial and maintain liability insurance, and for volunteers to educate the public to righting a wrong; namely, ensuring our veterans are buried with honor.

If you would like to learn more about MIAP, please visit our website at www.miap.us

Fred "Ducpho" Salanti

Missing in America Project Team

National Operations Coordinator

Website:  www.miap.us

From the Home Page of the American Legion Riders

http://www.americanlegionriders.net/

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Funeral Homes are storing thousands of containers of unclaimed cremated remains. The volume of room required to store these remains is becoming a real problem.

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