Unknown vets spared paupers' graves

[Bob Hubbard]

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Two Air Force veterans died in California without any next of kin
• Local coroner's official helped make sure the men got military burials
• Without her efforts, they would have been interred in a county-owned facility
• Small army of men and women turned out to pay their respects

Bakersfield, California (CNN) -- When Vincent Barrett died alone in July at age 72, the coroner's office could not find any next of kin.
Similarly, Ronald Axtell was listed as indigent -- no survivors and no funds for a funeral -- when he died at age 69.
And yet a small army of men and women gathered to pay their respects to the two men, both Air Force veterans, as they were buried at Bakersfield National Cemetery in September.

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