About Us

What The Final Salute Is

The Final Salute is a nonprofit organization based in Iowa dedicated to ensuring that veterans — and civilians alike — who die without family, recognition, or someone to claim their remains receive a respectful, dignified burial with full military honors. Its mission is rooted in the belief that “no one should be forgotten.”

The organization works with funeral homes, genealogists, community volunteers, and state partners to identify unclaimed cremated remains, confirm military service, and coordinate memorial services and burials.

Origins and Early History

The Final Salute began as a grassroots effort among local community members, funeral professionals, and volunteers in the Des Moines area who became aware of unclaimed veterans’ cremated remains sitting in funeral homes — sometimes for decades.
Lanae Strovers, a funeral director in Des Moines, is credited with founding the nonprofit. Her work stemmed from a personal desire to ensure that deceased veterans receive honors even if they lack living family or formal recognition.
Early efforts focused on researching records, locating unclaimed remains, and organizing burial services with military honors — a process that gained attention as stories of forgotten veterans, some from wars as far back as the Civil War, were uncovered.

Growth and Community Involvement

Since its start around 2018, The Final Salute has grown significantly. Volunteers and community groups help research military service, tell veterans’ stories, and organize ceremonies.
Events often include processions, memorial services with flag presentations, and interments at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery near Van Meter. Hundreds of Iowans — including veterans, families, civic leaders, and community members — often attend these services to pay respectful tribute.
The organization partners with the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA), which supports logistics, records verification, and ceremonial honors, helping ensure every veteran is laid to rest with proper dignity.

Ceremonies and Traditions

The Final Salute ceremonies typically begin with a memorial service where volunteers share the life stories and service records of each veteran being honored.
Services include a procession, presentation of colors, readings, taps, flag folding, and interment at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery.
These services honor veterans ranging from those who served in the Civil War to more recent conflicts such as World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
In some cases, families who had lost contact with relatives have been reunited with urns and flags for the first time, adding personal closure on top of community recognition.

Recent Impact in Iowa

By 2025, The Final Salute had helped inter more than 80 unclaimed veterans at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery, ensuring none were buried without honor.
Annual Final Salute ceremonies now draw hundreds of participants, including state leaders, veteran organizations, motorcycle rider groups (Freedom Riders, AMVETS Riders), community volunteers, and everyday citizens who come to pay their respects.
The program has grown in visibility and civic importance, with communities coming together each year in early October for fall ceremonies that ensure unclaimed veterans receive the honors they earned in life.

Why It Matters

The Final Salute in Iowa fills a powerful and emotional gap in honoring military service — making sure that every veteran’s life is acknowledged, their service remembered, and their body laid to rest with the dignity they deserve, even when no family is present.