227th unaccompanied veteran laid to rest at RGV State Veterans Cemetery

MISSION — As a bugler performed taps, a deafening hush that was already prevalent in the environment was then accompanied with bowed heads and somber hearts.

The grounds of the Rio Grande Valley State Veterans Cemetery has seen many of these ceremonies, and on Thursday morning it held another — in association with the Texas Veterans Land Board — for a veteran without a family present, but before a crowd who adopted him as their own.

U.S. Air Force Airman First Class Don R. Marcell was the 227th unaccompanied veteran to be buried Thursday through the Veterans Land Board.

Marcell was born on Jan. 30, 1934, and served from October 1951 to October 1955 and received the National Defense Service Medal for his service.

Because Marcell’s family wasn’t in attendance for his burial, the director of the Texas State Veterans Cemetery Program, Dr. John Kelley, accepted Marcell’s burial flag on his family’s behalf.

The veterans cemetery is just one of four in the state with another being built in Lubbock. Killeen, Corpus Christi and Abilene are home to the other three, according to Kelley.

He mentioned that Killeen’s veteran cemetery is the busiest saying, that they see about one unaccompanied burial a month.

“They do about half of our whole number of burials that we do,” Kelley said. “About half of them are done in Killeen. About a quarter of them are done in Corpus and then the final quarter are shared almost equally exactly between Mission and Abilene.”

Kelley, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, added that the program sees about one-and-a-half unaccompanied burials per month.

He added that the program is seeing an increase in burials because Vietnam veterans are reaching their 70s and 80s and more of them are dying.

“I saw a statistic recently. Nationwide, we’re losing 300 veterans a day and most of them are Vietnam veterans,” Kelley said.

Kelley believes another reason they’re seeing more veterans die is due to homelessness, stating that he didn’t know Marcell, only what he accomplished during his time serving in the Air Force.

“We don’t know his circumstance in life that came today to the point of not having a next of kin, but what we do know is he honorably and faithfully served his country and we know this community supports him by the very presence here today,” Kelley said.

To see more, view Monitor photojournalist Delcia Lopez’s full photo gallery here: 

Photo Gallery: 227th unaccompanied veteran laid to rest at RGV State Veterans Cemetery