CROWNSVILLE — Marine veteran Kenneth Hayden was considered unaccompanied when he arrived at Crownsville Veterans Cemetery for his final burial.
Strangers make sure marine veteran is not buried alone
The Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families had been unable to locate relatives who could attend the service. But when Hayden was laid to rest, he was surrounded by active-duty Marines, fellow veterans and community members who came to make sure his final goodbye was not a lonely one.
Vietnam veteran Bill Gray estimated that more than 100 people attended the military honors ceremony.
Gray did not know Hayden personally. He came after receiving an email from the state announcing that two unaccompanied veterans would be buried that day—Hayden at Crownsville and an Army veteran at Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery.
Gray attended with two friends who also served in Vietnam.
“It’s a brotherhood,” Gray said. “Being in the military is a brotherhood, a sisterhood. We have each other’s back, and in this case, we’re here to honor the service that this man gave his country.”
Roughly 30 to 40 active-duty Marines were among those who attended, along with representatives from veterans organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans.
Although the people surrounding Hayden’s gravesite were largely strangers, Gray said their shared experience of military service connected them.
“I did not know this man, did not know his family,” Gray said. “But we as veterans are part of his family, and that’s why we came to honor him.”
Hayden was buried with his wife, Peggy, according to Russell Ware, director of cemetery and memorial programs for the Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families.
Ware said little was known about Hayden’s personal life, but the state confirmed that he had served honorably in the Marine Corps and was eligible to be buried among his fellow service members.
“He served with honor, and he is given the right to be buried with his brothers and sisters in arms here,” Ware said.
Ware said the state typically reserves the final Friday of each quarter for unaccompanied veteran burials, depending on whether veterans’ remains have been received.
Public notices are shared through the department’s newsletter and social media pages, often 30 to 45 days before a scheduled ceremony.
“Time is the most precious gift that somebody can give that can never be replaced,” Ware said. “The people that showed up today gave that precious gift to somebody they didn’t know, just because they served.”
The department works with medical examiners, funeral homes and veterans service organizations to identify unclaimed remains and determine whether the deceased served in the military.
Ware said some remains can sit unclaimed for decades when funeral homes or other organizations do not know whom to contact. One of the first veterans buried through the state’s effort was a World War I veteran who died in 1984.
Since January 2022, the department has provided proper burials for 49 unaccompanied veterans, Ware said.
“It’s not just a fight. It’s a duty, it’s an honor, it’s a charge for us to do,” he said.
Hayden may have arrived at the cemetery without relatives standing beside him, but Gray rejected the idea that the Marine was alone.
“No, he was not,” Gray said.
For the veterans and strangers who came to honor him, Hayden was more than an unfamiliar name. He was a fellow service member, a Marine and a member of a military family determined to remember its own.
