Mo. group ensures final respect for homeless vets

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Nearly four dozen people attended a funeral for a Korean War veteran whom they didn't know, their way of saying thanks to a man who spent many of the final years of his life living on the streets.

The burial on Wednesday was for 76-year-old Frederick Birkl. He died April 20 at a nursing home in Troy, Mo., that took him in two years ago.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/120iJuE ) reports that Birkl was for many years a transient who lived for a time under a blue tarp along the Mississippi River near St. Louis.

The St. Louis Korean War Association chapter often helps out with funerals for homeless vets; sometimes members serve as pallbearers, other times they are simply there to pay respects.

"What's his name?" Joe McMahon, 82, of Arnold, a retired millwright and Army veteran, asked just before the short service began. His friends shrugged.

Birkl served in the Air Force during the Korean War era, never ascending beyond the lowest rank, airman basic.

"My role as a veteran is to honor his service, not the life after his service," said Army National Guard Lt. Col. Andre D'Arden, who served as chaplain for the funeral.

A group of motorcycle riders, old vets, a few funeral home workers and some from the nursing home gathered to pay their respects. A woman, her hand on a flag-covered casket, sang "Amazing Grace." A funeral director read a poem about service members who never come back from war the same.

Hoffmeister Colonial Mortuary paid for the funeral, dressed Birkl in a suit and donated a brown metal casket.

Hoffmeister is part of Dignity Memorial, a national funeral home chain. In 2000, retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Branson, of Hillsboro, Mo., helped start a national program at Dignity Memorial to bury homeless vets. Since then, they've buried 89 in St. Louis and 1,400 across the country.

"Many (veterans) have great difficulty adjusting to our time," Branson told the crowd Wednesday.

While many didn't know Birkl's circumstances, Branson said: "He would be so proud to know he was surrounded."

Birkl grew up in Altoona, Pa., and joined the Air Force when he was 16. Karen Bobeen of the nursing home said Birkl wouldn't talk about his service. She was given Birkl's folded flag and planned to place it in a case at the nursing home.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com