Local veterans laid to rest at sea by Veterans Memorial Reef

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) —Today, aquatic urns containing the cremated remains of seven veterans, were lowered to their final resting place at sea off the coast of Carolina Beach, surrounded by loved ones.

“When I heard about this, I was so excited, because he would have loved this, he would have loved this. He loved the water. He was my scuba instructor, and that’s how we met. He loved to fish, he loved to scuba dive, and being part of a reef would be so neat for him, and so that’s why I decided to do it.” Jane McGann, family member.

Many saying they believed their family members would have loved know their final resting place would be at sea.

“He was a navy veteran, hence his hat, and he loved the ocean, he loved nature and preservation, and it just feels like it checks all the boxes, of something he’d love, and it just feels like if he was here, he’d be a part of this kind of thing, voluntarily anyway. So, the fact that we could do that for him is very special,” said Kimberly Mueller, family member.

The final phase of the inaugural launch of the Veterans Memorial Reef Project followed one week after veterans memorial reef held their inaugural “Our Fallen Heroes” ceremony, that recognized seven local veterans, and their families, also displaying the aquatic urns, with their loved ones remains.

The 2000 pound urns were placed in the ocean to join existing ocean reefs, with the goal of helping to provide habitat to fish and other marine life.

Veterans Memorial Reef’s CEO and President, both said they are glad they were able to honor local deceased veterans in a unique way.

“The seas stayed calm, and they could witness what we were trying to accomplish by recognizing the veterans and their family members, and now we’re creating more of the ecosystem, and knowing that we are going to help preserve the Carolina Coast,” said Thomas Marcinowski, Veterans Memorial Reef’s CEO and founder.

“It met all our expectations, but more importantly, it met all of the families’ expectations. Every family member that I talked to said that they were so pleased, and it really added some closure for them. So, we couldn’t have asked for anymore testimony than that,” Joe Irrera, Veterans Memorial Reef’s president.

Within the next 2 weeks, divers will reposition the aquatic urns for the plaques on the urns displaying the veterans’ names to face east, so the sun will rise facing their memorial reefs, and GPS coordinates for each reef will documented on Veteran Memorial Reef’s website.