Six veterans were laid to rest with full military honors on a warm spring day at the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery, Tuesday, March 25. Unlike most memorials where family and friends gather in mourning for the loss of a loved one, at this ceremony hardly anyone in attendance knew who the men were. The men died alone—two were homeless at the time they passed.
Around 100 people—many of them veterans themselves, or families of veterans—streamed into the cemetery surrounded by oak trees to show respect to men who served their country and paid a price for it throughout their lives.
“They seemingly passed away alone and unacknowledged, but they were not left behind. Veterans don’t forget. We don’t leave anyone behind,” said Jack Murphy, veterans services officer for Monterey and San Benito counties, in his welcoming remarks.
“Unfortunately, because of the cards life deals you, sometimes they didn’t have either the luxury or the opportunity to be recognized and thanked in a manner that I think everyone of us would deem appropriate to their selfless acts,” he said.
A number of the veterans had “suffered through homelessness through the course of their life,” Murphy said. “Many, many times it’s related to something they experienced in their service, some of that trauma.”
After reviewing the veterans’ coroner reports and and service records, Murphy says he could see how the men—from Vietnam-era to early Gulf War veterans—suffered from PTSD, ailments related to exposure to Agent Orange, and other service-related issues. He believes those issues contributed to them dying without family connections or in homelessness.
The ceremony came about after the National Cemetery Administration, part of the Veterans Administration, ruled last year that indigent veterans were eligible for burial or interment in veterans cemeteries, as long as they were honorably discharged.
Murphy collaborated with the Monterey County Sheriff Coroner's Office and others to organize the ceremony, complete with a rifle salute, taps played by Joe Heston from Bugles Across America, a US Army Color Guard from the Presidio of Monterey and the VFW Post 6869 and American Legion Post 31 Joint Honor Guard, plus the American Legion Riders.
Before the cremated remains of the six were solemnly brought into the cemetery’s covered pavilion, Murphy gave a little information about each veteran.
Andrew Stanley Brzowtowski, originally of Syracuse, New York enlisted in the US Army in 1970. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Combat Infantry Badge. He died homeless, of cardiac arrest in 2020 at age 69.
John Randolph McConnell was born in Maine in 1939 and enlisted in the US Air Force as an airplane electrician 1962. After the Air Force, McConnell was a professional musician. Murphy described him as a “fun guy to hang out with.” McConnell passed away in 2021 from Covid-19 at age 81.
Jeffrey A. Graham, born in Kentucky in 1958, served in the Army and later worked as a professional carpenter and contractor. He died of cardiovascular disease at just age 63 in 2021.
David Calvin Schaeffer came from South Dakota and eventually settled in Salinas. He served in the US Navy. Murphy said he earned the Good Conduct and National Defense Service medals. He worked as a career federal civil servant. He died in 2021 from congestive heart failure.
Ralph D. Hucke, born in 1961 in Oregon, was a Desert Storm combat veteran, serving in the Army. His awards included the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, a Good Conduct Medal and the Kuwait Liberation Medal. He passed away of lung cancer in 2021 at just 60 years old.
Richard Clarence Wilkerson was born in Los Angeles in 1946 and spent most of his life in Carmel Valley. He enlisted in the Army in Salinas in 1971. He received the Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal and National Defense Service Medal. He was homeless when he died of congestive heart failure in 2023.
Of the last two men, Murphy said he personally knew Hucke and Wilkerson, through his previous job working at the Veterans Transition Center in Marina. Hucke was able to get into housing through help from services through the Veterans Administration and case management through VTC and others. “He got out and was doing great,” Murphy said.
Wilkerson, on the other hand, was a free spirit who liked living outdoors in Carmel Valley, he said.
Murphy talked about the struggles that veterans face when they come home, like maintaining relationships with loved ones, another casualty of their service.
“So keep that in your heart,” he asked the crowd near the end of his remarks.
Murphy then sat down near the front, and members of the Honor Guard brought in the six small, brown boxes affixed with plaques for each veteran. They were placed carefully on a table at the front where six carefully folded US Flags were waiting.
The Color Guard followed with a folded flag that was carefully unfolded then folded again and presented to Murphy by an officer in a particularly poignant moment—he symbolically served as a representative for a family member who traditionally would have received the flag during a military funeral.
Rifle shots rang out from a short distance from the gathering, and Taps were played by Heston.
The boxes were removed and taken by the Honor Guard to the nearby columbarium where they were carefully placed in six niches.
“Stand by Andrew Brzowtowski, United States Army, thank you for your service to our country. You may now rest here in peace with honor,” a member of the guard said. He repeated the statement for each veteran.
The American Legion Riders, each carrying a US flag, took turns placing challenge coins—popular commemorative medallions in the military to show belonging and recognition for service—in each niche to accompany each veteran “into eternity,” a member said.
“Everyone was willing to come together and in their own way pay their respects,” says Murphy. He says it was an important ceremony, not just to honor the late veterans, but for the various veterans groups participating to see how they support one another.
Murphy says he plans on organizing ceremonies for more indigent veterans in the future, and while he hopes he won’t need to do too many, “I can’t be that optimistic,” he says.