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ELKINS -- The American Legion H.W. Daniels Post 29 will perform military honors Saturday for a veteran whose cremated remains were found in October.
The remains of MSgt Robert Deeth (USAF Retired) were found in an urn in a local dumpster, and then brought to Post 29.
Military honors for Deeth, who was a resident of Elkins, will be at American Legion Little Arlington Cemetery at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, after the conclusion of the Wreaths Across America ceremony.
A City of Elkins Sanitation Department worker found the urn in a dumpster at Gateway Apartments during the Mountain State Forest Festival.
"The urn was thrown away at Gateway Apartments and one of the workers up there told me when they cleaned out the apartment they accidentally threw it away," Post 29 Commander John Miller told The Inter-Mountain at the time. "He said it didn't look like any urn they had ever seen because it was in some kind of box. So it didn't resemble an urn, it was just a blue box.
"He apologized because he's a veteran himself, and he told me if he would have known what it was it would have never gone in the dumpster."
Deeth was a veteran of the Vietnam War, serving as an air traffic controller in the Air Force.
He received the Bronze Service Star, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Device and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
After his retirement from the Air Force, he was employed as an air traffic controller by the Federal Aviation Administration, retiring with more than 20 years of service.
Miller said The Inter-Mountain's article in October, featuring a photo of the veteran, led to many phone calls from local residents, which helped to identify Deeth, who passed away in May 2018 at 75.