George Pitcher served 26 years in the United States Navy, a commitment that included World War II and the Korean War.
With a career of that length, one would expect the military to have enough documentation to get Pitcher buried at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.
One would be mistaken.
Erica Westling, the veteran service officer who staffs the Ford Fleetwood mobile home that is PCMARVETS’ field office, has become an expert in digging for missing files. When veterans come to the non-profit’s field office hoping to connect with the benefits they earned, she warns them that they’ll likely be told that their records were destroyed in a fire. Or a flood. Or are not on file.
If that’s the response, she starts the search, just as she did when Jim Pitcher asked for help in getting his father’s ashes interred with the honors due him.
Jim Pitcher walked up to the mobile field office while it was parked at the Eatonville food bank. Like his father, he was a Navy man, serving from 1974 to 1978.
“He came to see us about putting in a claim,” said Kelley Byers, PCMARVETS board chairman. “When we finished that, he asked if we could give his dad a ride to Mount Tahoma.”
Byers took it literally before Jim Pitcher explained that his father had died in 1992. The family had his ashes in a wooden box, and wanted to follow through on his wishes to be buried with military honors at Mount Tahoma. But they did not have the specific piece of paperwork required to make that happen.
Neither did the military.
“Ninety percent of the paperwork was done,” Byers said. “The one piece that was needed was not on file.”
So Jim Pitcher had kept his father’s ashes for 20 years, hoping to find a way to get them to the destination they deserved. In Eatonville, he put them into the care of George Hight, PCMARVETS board vice chairman.
Hight and Byers committed to giving them the respect due them.
“A proper funeral and recognition from his brothers and sisters in service is something that every veteran is entitled to,” Hight said. “When their life ends, that respect and appreciation is something that is due them. It is due to your brothers and sisters. We all signed a check, payable with your life, if necessary.”
Redeeming that check for Pitcher was more difficult than it should have been.
“It took Erica four months to get the records that he had to have,” Byers said.
When she succeeded, Hight and Kelly arranged the ceremony. Twenty years to the day after he died, George Pitcher was honored with taps, a rifle salute, a brief service, and a flag presented to his son Jim.
PCMARVETs had given him the ride to Mount Tahoma National Cemetery, the ride we all owed him.
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