Corporal Richard Veres; Private First Class Herman Samotin; and Frank Schanel, a World War I cook, were all but forgotten for decades.
"Frank Schanel was in custodial care for 28 years," explains Bill Schaaf of the Patriot Guard Riders.
In other words, Frank Schanel's cremated remains (also called "cremains") spent 28 years in a Westchester County funeral home.
Schaaf explains, "So many times, the families of these deceased veterans - they just don't exist any more."
In such cases, the "cremains" just sit and wait.
Funeral directors don't have to hold onto them but many of them do.
"It's just a shame these folks have been sitting on shelves for, some of them, over 40 years and that's no way to treat a veteran," says Dan Cassidy, Director of Saratoga National Cemetery.
Back in April, Cassidy got a phone call from Schaaf.
An Army veteran and member of the Patriot Guard Riders, Schaaf also works with the Missing in America Project - a program that works to find the unclaimed remains of veterans in order to give them military burials.
Schaaf explains, "We certainly feel it's more appropriate that these veterans be given their rightful internment and their rightful honors that they're entitled to by, you know, by law."
In June, the remains of Veres, Samotin, and Schanel were interred in a Saratoga National Cemetery burial wall.
The veterans were given full military honors and became the first veterans laid to rest in New York State through the Missing in America Project.
Army veteran and cemetery assistant Paul Lyman describes the ceremony: "Just to witness the respect that these individuals were given from the Patriot Guard and all of the individuals that came here to witness this ceremony was most mind-blowing ceremony I've ever been a part of."
The bell from the U.S.S. Saratoga was rung three times for each veteran as he was laid to rest here during June's ceremony.
The folks from the Missing in America Project tell us it's a ceremony they're hoping to repeat.
"It's kind of the tip of the iceberg," explains Schaaf.
He says there are hundreds of unclaimed remains sitting in New York funeral homes.
Schaaf says, "It's one of those feel-good things that you do but you do it because it's... simply, it's the right thing to do."
The veterans who no longer have families to bury them are being adopted by their brothers and sisters in arms.
