thedrifter
11-16-07, 04:27 AM
November 16, 2007
A Less Than Honorable Discharge From the Wrong Plot
By COREY KILGANNON
CALVERTON, N.Y., Nov. 15 — The rainfall paused at midday on Thursday as gravediggers lifted a wooden coffin containing the remains of a marine named William Hayes out of the ground and loaded it into a van.
Within two hours, the remains lay next to four cadavers in the basement of the Isaiah Owens Funeral Home in Harlem, which promises a good-looking corpse in its motto: “Where beauty softens your grief.”
The story of how Mr. Hayes, who died with no money or family in a Bronx nursing home, wound up in an unfinished basement after resting in peace for four years in the dignified setting of Calverton National Cemetery involves a case of mistaken identity. Federal officials say it seems to be the first time in the history of the national cemetery system, which was created during the Civil War, that a veteran buried in the wrong grave has been disinterred. That’s 3.3 million burials in 125 cemeteries.
The William Hayes who died in that nursing home on Nov. 8, 2003, was supposed to have gone to an anonymous grave in a potter’s field in the Bronx. But because he had served in Vietnam, city officials made arrangements for Calverton to review his eligibility. Calverton officials matched his name and Social Security number to one Willie Hayes of Harlem, an Army veteran decorated several times for service in Vietnam and honorably discharged in 1970.
And so, Mr. Hayes from the nursing home was buried at Calverton on Christmas Eve 2003, at no cost and with full military honors. Since then he had rested among the towering trees and long rows of white marble headstones.
Then, on Sept. 30, a man named Willie Hayes, a retired printer from Harlem, died at age 59. When the funeral director — the aforementioned Mr. Owens — tried to arrange his burial at Calverton, he was rebuffed by cemetery officials, who said they already had a William Hayes there, with the same name, rank, birth date and Social Security number.
Confronted with airtight family documents, cemetery officials finally agreed that Willie Hayes of Harlem did deserve a military burial. It took place last month.
But in investigating the background of the lonely veteran from the Bronx, Calverton officials found a discrepancy: Somewhere along the line — whether by identity theft or clerical error — he had come to bear the identity of Willie Hayes, he of the honorable discharge.
The Bronx William Hayes was born in 1943, making him five years older than the Harlem Willie Hayes. In addition, Mr. Hayes of the Bronx served in the Marines from 1965 to 1969, not the Army, and had an “other than honorable” discharge, making him ineligible for a military cemetery plot.
His dignified headstone was quickly replaced with a simple marker, and officials began planning the exhumation.
It probably is the first time on record that mistaken identity has led to the disinterment of a veteran from a national cemetery, said Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the National Cemetery Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Steve Alfasi, the Bronx deputy public administrator whose office handled William Hayes’s burial in 2003, said he died in the nursing home, the Kings Harbor Multicare Center, with scant money for a private burial. Mr. Alfasi said it was now apparent that William had acquired Willie’s identity. “Whether by fraud or mistake, down the line, I have no idea,” he said.
A records official at the nursing home said on Thursday night that she could not disclose information on William Hayes, and a spokeswoman for the home did not respond to messages.
Koreen Hayes, a niece of the Harlem Willie Hayes, said she suspected that her uncle had been the victim of identity theft.
Some of his military benefits had stopped coming several years back, she said, but he did not make a big fuss because “he thought maybe they just ran out.” She said he finally contacted Social Security officials, “and they told him he had to prove he was still alive, because they had death records that said he had been dead for years.”
Michael Picerno, director of Calverton, stood near the now empty grave on Thursday. “Somebody made a pretty big mistake” before contacting the cemetery, he said.
Calverton, which has buried 201,639 people since opening in 1978, is one of the largest national cemeteries. There are 162 people buried at Calverton with the last name Hayes. Five are named William; two are named Willie.
Mr. Picerno said the cemetery would leave empty the plot where William Hayes was exhumed, and would never bury anyone else there. His headstone will be crushed and buried on the property. “We’ve never seen anything like this happen before, and hope it never happens again,” he said.
As for William Hayes of the Bronx, he seemed again destined for a potter’s field. But on Monday, Veterans Day, Mr. Owens said he would provide a private burial for William Hayes at his own expense on Saturday at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, N.J.
On Thursday, Willie Hayes’s mother, Annie Hayes, 85, stood in her sprawling apartment in the St. Nicholas public housing project on West 127th Street in Harlem, where she raised her 12 children. Willie was the second.
She looked at a faded photograph of him in uniform and said softly, “I think they should have done a little more investigation.”
Ellie
A Less Than Honorable Discharge From the Wrong Plot
By COREY KILGANNON
CALVERTON, N.Y., Nov. 15 — The rainfall paused at midday on Thursday as gravediggers lifted a wooden coffin containing the remains of a marine named William Hayes out of the ground and loaded it into a van.
Within two hours, the remains lay next to four cadavers in the basement of the Isaiah Owens Funeral Home in Harlem, which promises a good-looking corpse in its motto: “Where beauty softens your grief.”
The story of how Mr. Hayes, who died with no money or family in a Bronx nursing home, wound up in an unfinished basement after resting in peace for four years in the dignified setting of Calverton National Cemetery involves a case of mistaken identity. Federal officials say it seems to be the first time in the history of the national cemetery system, which was created during the Civil War, that a veteran buried in the wrong grave has been disinterred. That’s 3.3 million burials in 125 cemeteries.
The William Hayes who died in that nursing home on Nov. 8, 2003, was supposed to have gone to an anonymous grave in a potter’s field in the Bronx. But because he had served in Vietnam, city officials made arrangements for Calverton to review his eligibility. Calverton officials matched his name and Social Security number to one Willie Hayes of Harlem, an Army veteran decorated several times for service in Vietnam and honorably discharged in 1970.
And so, Mr. Hayes from the nursing home was buried at Calverton on Christmas Eve 2003, at no cost and with full military honors. Since then he had rested among the towering trees and long rows of white marble headstones.
Then, on Sept. 30, a man named Willie Hayes, a retired printer from Harlem, died at age 59. When the funeral director — the aforementioned Mr. Owens — tried to arrange his burial at Calverton, he was rebuffed by cemetery officials, who said they already had a William Hayes there, with the same name, rank, birth date and Social Security number.
Confronted with airtight family documents, cemetery officials finally agreed that Willie Hayes of Harlem did deserve a military burial. It took place last month.
But in investigating the background of the lonely veteran from the Bronx, Calverton officials found a discrepancy: Somewhere along the line — whether by identity theft or clerical error — he had come to bear the identity of Willie Hayes, he of the honorable discharge.
The Bronx William Hayes was born in 1943, making him five years older than the Harlem Willie Hayes. In addition, Mr. Hayes of the Bronx served in the Marines from 1965 to 1969, not the Army, and had an “other than honorable” discharge, making him ineligible for a military cemetery plot.
His dignified headstone was quickly replaced with a simple marker, and officials began planning the exhumation.
It probably is the first time on record that mistaken identity has led to the disinterment of a veteran from a national cemetery, said Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the National Cemetery Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Steve Alfasi, the Bronx deputy public administrator whose office handled William Hayes’s burial in 2003, said he died in the nursing home, the Kings Harbor Multicare Center, with scant money for a private burial. Mr. Alfasi said it was now apparent that William had acquired Willie’s identity. “Whether by fraud or mistake, down the line, I have no idea,” he said.
A records official at the nursing home said on Thursday night that she could not disclose information on William Hayes, and a spokeswoman for the home did not respond to messages.
Koreen Hayes, a niece of the Harlem Willie Hayes, said she suspected that her uncle had been the victim of identity theft.
Some of his military benefits had stopped coming several years back, she said, but he did not make a big fuss because “he thought maybe they just ran out.” She said he finally contacted Social Security officials, “and they told him he had to prove he was still alive, because they had death records that said he had been dead for years.”
Michael Picerno, director of Calverton, stood near the now empty grave on Thursday. “Somebody made a pretty big mistake” before contacting the cemetery, he said.
Calverton, which has buried 201,639 people since opening in 1978, is one of the largest national cemeteries. There are 162 people buried at Calverton with the last name Hayes. Five are named William; two are named Willie.
Mr. Picerno said the cemetery would leave empty the plot where William Hayes was exhumed, and would never bury anyone else there. His headstone will be crushed and buried on the property. “We’ve never seen anything like this happen before, and hope it never happens again,” he said.
As for William Hayes of the Bronx, he seemed again destined for a potter’s field. But on Monday, Veterans Day, Mr. Owens said he would provide a private burial for William Hayes at his own expense on Saturday at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, N.J.
On Thursday, Willie Hayes’s mother, Annie Hayes, 85, stood in her sprawling apartment in the St. Nicholas public housing project on West 127th Street in Harlem, where she raised her 12 children. Willie was the second.
She looked at a faded photograph of him in uniform and said softly, “I think they should have done a little more investigation.”
Ellie