FLAG OF THE FALLEN—Simi Valley VFW District 7 color guard officer Wayne Wright, left, presents Army Air Corps veteran Starr Thompson of Thousand Oaks with the funeral flag of Merchant Marine veteran Valentine Plaska during a March 16 service at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park for five homeless veterans. The Dignity Memorial network coordinated the service, and full military honors were provided by the Simi Valley VFW color guard. They died homeless but not forgotten.

Five deceased United States veterans were honored on Tuesday with a full military funeral service at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

The service included a gun salute, the playing of taps and a reading of the poem “Just a Common Soldier (A Soldier Died Today)” by Canadian World War II veteran A. Lawrence Vaincourt.

“We are grateful for their service and their selfless acts for our country,” said the Rev. Bruce Kitabjian, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Newbury Park.

Family and friends of the Southern California men could not be located. The veterans’ service spanned World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Four served in the U.S. Army: Glenn Davis, age 63, from 1963 to 1964; Jefferson Robinson, age 62, from 1964 to 1974; Sanford L. Garland, age 78, from 1955 to 1958; and Paul Deighton, age 86, from 1943 to 1946.

Valentine Plaska, age 92, served in the Merchant Marines from 1941 to 1944.

The men are among an estimated 150,000 homeless veterans nationwide whose remains are unclaimed at the time of their deaths.

The homeless veterans burial program is a joint effort of the Dignity Memorial network of funeral, cemetery and cremation providers, Riverside National Cemetery, Veterans Affairs, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and local veterans organizations and advocates.

Available in 20 cities nationwide, burial services have been provided for more than 600 homeless veterans since the program’s inception in 2000.

The Dignity Memorial network provides preparation of the body, transportation, casket and coordination of the funeral service. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides burial in a national cemetery, including opening and closing of the grave site, a grave liner, a headstone or marker and the graveside ceremony. The interment of the five men took place the next day at Riverside National Cemetery.

On Pierce Brothers’ central lawn, the caskets, each on a stand, were draped with American flags. Large red, white and blue wreaths stood nearby.

Holding American flags, about 20 men and women, many of them veterans, stood side by side in a line behind the small, seated audience. Known as the Patriot Guard Riders, many had traveled by motorcycle to Pierce Brothers to honor their fellow veterans. They came from Ventura, Camarillo, Fontana and other communities.

Jerry Wendt rode in from Arcadia. The 70-year-old retired Army staff sergeant attends multiple veteran funerals every week. Once a week he participates in a service for homeless veterans.

Wendt, who served from 1960 to 1966, keeps a large ring that holds hundreds of dog tags, each representing a military funeral he’s attended. He added the latest tag, inscribed with the five homeless veterans’ names and “We are their family” at the bottom.

“We do this because we have vowed to never forget,” he said.

Sometimes it takes months, even years, for a homeless veteran to be buried, Wendt said. The bodies are kept in cold storage while efforts are made to locate the veteran’s relatives.

“Tragically, in some cases veterans do have families, but rather than spending $3,000 to $5,000 on a funeral, they allow L.A. County to do it for a couple of hundred bucks,” Wendt said.

In May, Wendt plans to join other veterans in a 10-day ride from California to Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day.

During the memorial service in Westlake, Joe P. Sainz Jr., a retired U.S. Army veteran, recognized those like Wendt in attendance.

“As we honor these veterans we also want to honor those here today,” Sainz said. “Job well done. Carry on.”