UNION BEACH, NJ – A Memorial Day tradition meant to honor the fallen took a stunning turn when members of American Legion Post 321 uncovered that U.S. military Veterans had been lying in unmarked graves for decades—because their families couldn’t afford installation fees for government-provided headstones.

The discovery was made in 2023 at Shoreland Memorial Gardens in Hazlet, where Post 321 annually places flags on more than 450 graves. But that year, a request to bring extra flags to the cemetery office led to a side closet, where Chaplain Bob LaCour of the Sons of the American Legion found a headstone bearing a post-it note that read: “Not Paid.” Several other government-issued markers—meant to honor deceased Veterans—were also stored in that room, never placed.

The reason: While the

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