Sixteen unclaimed veterans were laid to rest at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Van Meter, with their remains delivered by military helicopter for the first time in the history of the nonprofit organizing the ceremony. Hundreds of people turned out for the service, which doubled as a milestone: the 100th burial carried out by Final Salute, the Des Moines-based group dedicated to giving unclaimed Iowans a proper farewell.
According to KCCI, the helicopter transport marked a first for a Final Salute burial, adding a striking visual to a ceremony that has become an annual tradition at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery. The event was organized by the Des Moines nonprofit and emceed by KCCI's Ben Kaplan. As KETV reported, the veterans' remains were flown to the cemetery by helicopter, and hundreds of people gathered at the site to witness it.
Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn accompanied the remains on the flight, per the same KCCI account. Reports differ slightly on the branch breakdown of the 16 veterans honored: one account lists nine Army members, three Marines and one Air Force veteran, while another account puts the group at nine Army, three Navy, three Marine and one Air Force veteran.
A Nonprofit Built on Finding Family No One Else Would
Final Salute was founded in 2018 by Lanae Strovers, a funeral home director at Hamilton's Funeral Home, according to The Des Moines Register. Strovers now serves as the organization's president, a role confirmed by WeAreIowa. Strovers has said she feels called to organize these ceremonies and intends to keep doing so as long as the community continues to support the effort.
Some of the remains honored this year came from a Des Moines funeral home that turned over about 72 unclaimed cremated remains to Final Salute, the same KCCI report on the pre-burial preparations noted. Volunteers with the organization do more than coordinate logistics — in at least one case, they dug into records to confirm a veteran's service after his paperwork initially suggested otherwise. WeAreIowa reported that additional research by Final Salute volunteers verified the military service of Edward Cook after his documents indicated he was not a veteran.
One Veteran's Path From Holland, Iowa to a Cemetery He Can Finally Call Home
Among those honored was Lester Jewell McMullen Jr., an Army veteran from Holland, Iowa, who was honorably discharged and died in May with no one to claim his remains, according to KCRG. That station also described this year's ceremony as marking Final Salute's eighth year of service and the burial of its 100th veteran.
The scale of the group's work has grown steadily since its founding. By 2024, Final Salute had helped lay to rest and honor 70 unclaimed veterans and spouses, the Des Moines Register reported. That same year, 20 unclaimed veterans — including those connected to World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Civil War — were buried at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery, according to the Register's account of the 2024 ceremony.
Beyond Veterans: A Broader Mission
Final Salute's mission has never been limited strictly to veterans. KETV reported that the organization buried nearly 90 unclaimed civilian adults in 2019, and in 2024 it laid to rest dozens of unclaimed children as well. A separate KCCI report described a related effort in which 170 unclaimed Iowans were placed into a vault next to nearly 90 others who had been buried in 2019, underscoring how much unclaimed-remains work exists beyond the annual veterans ceremony.
Community involvement has become a hallmark of these gatherings, with volunteers, local students and youth organizations regularly taking part in the preparation and the service itself. For a nonprofit that began with one funeral director's conviction that no veteran should be forgotten, Saturday's 100th burial stood as proof that the mission has only grown — one unclaimed name, and one flight over the Iowa countryside, at a time.
