Chaplain Samuel JT Boone salutes as soldiers fold the flag from the casket of Rick Leiderman, an Air Force veteran, during a service Friday, May 24, 2024 at Fort Jackson National Cemetery (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA – Rick Leiderman, a 71-year-old former Air Force nuclear weapons specialist, was buried Friday at Fort Jackson National Cemetery.
With no living family present, his brief ceremony was attended by volunteers, including members of the motorcycle-riding Patriot Guard.
The folded flag from Leiderman’s casket was presented to representatives of the Spartanburg coroner’s office, which had searched for a living family and confirmed Leiderman’s military service after he died in a county nursing home.
“Without their work and their research to make sure he was a veteran, we wouldn’t be here,” William Lynch, program director of the Homeless Veterans Burial Program at Dunbar funeral homes, told the crowd.
“Until a few days ago, there was no need for a coroner to look into whether someone was a veteran.”
On May 13, Governor Henry McMaster spoke signed a law requiring coroners and funeral home directors to determine whether unclaimed remains belong to a veteran, and if so, contact an organization that arranges funerals for veterans within 120 days.
Lynch, manager of Dunbar Funeral Home in Irmo, said he has been advocating for the law for five years. It was put on the back burner during the pandemic, he said.
“I was very excited to see this become a reality,” he said.
Not a veteran himself, Lynch has been arranging services for veterans whose remains have gone unclaimed almost as long as he has been a funeral director. He obtained his funeral director’s license in January 2017 and established the South Carolina Homeless Veterans Burial Program in July of that year.
Both of his grandfathers were veterans, Lynch said.
In January 2018, he saw coverage of Dennis Reidy, a homeless veteran who died without family, which inspired his work. Since then, he estimates he has organized about 20 services for unclaimed veterans.
Tom Yeoman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps and now a ride captain for the Patriot Guard, attended Friday’s service. Yeoman said he appreciates that coroners now have to check whether a person who died was a veteran.
“Why wouldn’t you do that?” he said. “But I’m glad it is, because there’s always someone who says, ‘That’s not important.’ But it is important to someone.”
Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said the new law gives them a clear way to ensure veterans without family can be buried with other service members.
“All 46 counties can now participate in one central location for our veterans, and I think that is exceptionally important,” he told the SC Daily Gazette.
He also said he plans to display the folded flag in the coroner’s office.
Other new SC laws regarding veterans
The Unclaimed Veterans Act was just one of several measures signed into law this year aimed at ensuring veterans receive quality services in the Palmetto State.
Rep. Bobby Cox, R-Greer, lead sponsor of the unclaimed remains bill, chairs a House subcommittee on military and veterans affairs. The former Army Ranger worked closely with the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify issues and also sponsored two other bills.
One of them makes it possible veterans to be buried in military cemeteries in South Carolina without meeting a residency requirement. Previously, state law required veterans to live in South Carolina when they joined the military, when they died, or for at least five years during their lifetime.
“I am a veteran myself. I changed my residency status when I was going through the military,” Cox said, adding that he would not have wanted his family to have to prove his residency before he could “be buried in South Carolina, where my family lives – where I was born. .”
The law wasn’t born out of a specific situation: Cox said he doesn’t know of any out-of-state veterans whose families wanted to bury them in South Carolina but were denied.
Making the change brought South Carolina into compliance with federal guidelines so the state could continue to receive federal funds for veterans’ cemeteries. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, South Carolina was one of eight states with a residency requirement for these cemeteries.
Cox also sponsored legislation to revive the Veterans Trust Fundallowing administrators to spend money on fundraising.
The trust is intended to distribute grants to nonprofit organizations that serve veterans. But the trustees were limited to distributing money received primarily through voluntary contributions from state tax forms. According to the ministry, this amounted to only $20,000 per year in subsidies.
The legislator too provided an update allowing disabled veterans to immediately obtain an existing property tax exemption for their home, rather than waiting until the first full year of owning the home.
Rep. Raye Felder, R-Fort Mill, who sponsored the bill, said she had a constituent who bought a home in February one year and had to pay property taxes for the rest of the year. The tax liability put the loan at risk.
“My local veterans group was very appreciative,” Felder said of the new law.
The intent of the original law that was updated was for veterans to get the benefit “from day one,” she said, but it just wasn’t worded that way.
Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Todd McCaffrey expressed appreciation for the Legislature’s work in passing the new laws.
“These important pieces of legislation will not only improve the quality of life for our military and our families, but also champion our state’s progress to ensure our veterans easily receive the assistance and benefits they deserve,” he said in a statement to the Gazette.
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